THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


WHITNEY,  Gertrude  Capen  (Mrs. 
George  Erastus  Whitney),  author;  6.  Canton, 
Mass.;  d.  Ezekiel  and  Emma  (van  Poelien-Knaggs) 
Capen;  ed.  local  Bchs.,  Gannett's  Inst.,  Boston  schs. 
and  under  pvt.  teachers;  m.  George  Eraatus  Whit 
ney,  of  Augusta,  Ga.,  1899.  Mem.  N.E.  Historic- 
Geneal.  Soc.,  Colonial  Dames  America,  Mass.  Soc. 
Mayflower  Descendants,  Huguenot  Soc.  of  S.C., 
Authors'  League  America,  League  of  Am.  Penwomen, 
Soc.  Vocational  Therapy,  Am.  Poetry  Assn.,  Am. 
Soc.  Forestry,  Natural  History  Soc.,  New  England 
Woman's  Press  Assn.  Clubs:  Country  'Aoman.s 
Business  and  Professional  Woman's,  Boston  Authors', 
Atlanta  Writers.  Author:  I  Choose,  1910,  3d  edit., 
1919;  Yet  Speaketh  He,  1910,  3d  edit.,  1923;  Roses 
from  My  Garden,  1912,  2d  edit.,  1924;  Above  the 
Shame  of  Circumstance,  1913,  2d  edit.,  1925;  The 
House  of  Landell,  1917;  Where  the  Sun  Shines,  1920; 
On  the  Other  Side  of  the  Bridge,  1922.  The  Inter 
preter,  1925;  John,  John,  and  His  Son,  John,  1928. 
Home:  945  Greene  St.,  Augusta,  Ga. 


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WHERE  THE  SUN  SHINES 


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CONTENTS 


3 


-J 
'i 


CHAPTER  I 7 

CHAPTER  II 17 

CHAPTER          III 22 

CHAPTER          IV 30 

CHAPTER  V 36 

CHAPTER          VI 43 

CHAPTER        VII 47 

CHAPTER      VIII 55 

CHAPTER          IX 62 

CHAPTER  X 67 

CHAPTER          XI 76 

CHAPTER        XII 83 

CHAPTER      XIII 91 

CHAPTER      XIV 97 

CHAPTER        XV 105 

CHAPTER      XVI 107 

CHAPTER     XVII 113 

CHAPTER   XVIII 117 

CHAPTER       XIX 119 

CHAPTER  XX...,                                                             ....120 


447240 


WHERE  THE  SUN  SHINES 

PART  ONE 
CHAPTER  I 

His  Majesty,  Hypocrates  Socrates  Moon 
was  a  worthy  king  in  many  ways.  His  do 
mains  extended  over  vast  tracts  of  country 
where  ice-bound  streams  ran  merrily  up  hill 
and  tropical  flowers  enlivened  the  dead 
blackness  of  unbroken  expanses  of  snow. 
He  had  wealth  untold.  Gold  mines,  like 
towering  castles,  stood  erect  upon  the  sur 
rounding  plains.  Rivers  of  liquid  silver 
rushed  underground  with  the  sound  of 
mighty  roaring.  His  audience  chamber  was 
adorned  with  tapestries  of  filmy  lace,  into 
which,  traced  with  masterly  workmanship, 
were  representations  of  wonderful  land 
scapes  unknown  to  king  or  subjects.  All  of 
these,  upside  down. 

The  throne  was  not  at  one  end  of  the 
throne  room;  but  exactly  in  the  centre, 
though  His  Majesty,  Hypocrates  Socrates 
Moon  was  seldom  seated  thereon.  He  was 
a  funny  old  king.  One  of  his  strictest  man 
dates  was  that  every  one  should  earn  his 
salt.  If  some  unlucky  subject  failed  to  earn 
it  in  some  way  or  another  before  the  old 
king  learned  of  his  incapacity  or  his  indo- 


8  WHERE  THE  SUN  SHINES 

lence,  the  malefactor  was  sent  to  the  salt 
mines.  These,  instead  of  being  underground, 
were  spread  over  the  tops  of  mountains. 
There  was  the  terrible  climb  to  get  there 
and  then  the  climb  down  and  up  again. 
This  was,  for  all  the  world,  like  the  tumbles 
and  climbs  in  the  life  of  the  earth.  These 
people  knew  nothing  at  all  of  the  life  of  the 
earth  or  of  any  but  of  their  own  land.  If 
things  there,  seem  upside  down  to  us,  who 
read  of  that  strange  country,  they  seemed 
right  side  up  to  the  dwellers  thereof.  This 
points,  after  all,  to  the  fact,  that  nobody  sees 
anything  as  anybody  else  does  unless  he 
lives  in  precisely  the  same  spot,  and  sees  with 
the  very  same  eyes,  at  the  very  same  identi 
cal  moment,  and  at  exactly  the  very  same 
angle,  the  very  same  thing.  Does  this  ever 
occur ! 

As  I  say,  the  old  king  was  seldom  on  his 
throne.  He  kept  it  there,  he  said,  as  a  remi 
niscence  of  inquisition  days,  when  people 
were  set  to  rule  over  conditions  they  knew 
nothing  about,  and  to  guide  men  through 
paths  they,  themselves  had  never  travelled. 
A  queer  looking  thing  called  a  crown  hung 
over  the  uncomfortable  throne  chair.  The 
old  king  called  it  an  instrument  of  torture 
for  measuring,  and  compressing  to  a  given 
and  most  limited  size  and  weight,  the  brains 
it  was  supposed  to  encircle.  He  always  said, 
"supposed."  It  was  his  theory  that  wearing 
that  heavy  band  upon  the  head  generation 


WHERE  THE  SUN  SHINES  9 

after  generation  had  so  reduced  the  size  and 
weight  of  royal  brains,  that,  more  often  than 
not,  a  post  mortem  examination  revealed 
that  there  was  no  brain  there;  nothing  but  a 
mass  of  egotism  reduced  to  gelatine. 

This  all  goes  to  prove  that  in  the  land  of 
upside  down,  there  may  be  opinions  worthy 
of  consideration. 

One  very  upside  down  method  in  this  land 
of  Hypocrates  Socrates  Moon  was,  that 
Hypocrates,  himself,  was  a  very  good  pat 
tern  for  his  people  in  many  ways ;  only  that 
he  was  so  testy,  so  wrathy,  so  ill-tempered! 
In  this,  indeed,  he  seemed  like  many  rulers  in 
the  lands  of  right  side  up. 

This  may  suggest  that  it  takes  keen  per 
ception  to  differentiate  between  right  side  up 
and  upside  down. 

Hypocrates  Socrates  Moon  insisted  on 
drawing  all  the  water  that  was  used  in  his 
kingdom.  He  believed  (perhaps  Ruskin  was 
born  in  Socrates'  kingdom)  that  there  was 
only  one  way  to  restore  a  brain  that  had  been 
dried  away  and  fried  away,  dessicated  and 
blown  away  under  that  crown  on  that  inqui 
sition  stand  in  the  middle  of  that  great 
throne  chamber.  It  was  to  refuse  to  admit 
any  machinery  or  labor-saving  device  into 
the  kingdom  under  pain — not  of  death,  death 
never  seemed  a  bug-a-boo  to  old  Hypocrates 
Socrates  Moon;  but  of  being  exiled  into  the 
land  of  Stern  Experience.  There  the  offender 
was  to  test  himself  out,  as  one  might  say. 


10  WHERE  THE  SUN  SHINES 

Had  it  not  been  for  this  wise  rule  of  the 
funny  old  king,  the  Kingdom  of  the  Moon 
might  have  become,  in  truth,  what  we,  on 
earth,  have  been  taught  to  believe  it — dead 
and  done  for. 

Hypocrates  had  his  own  way  of  doing 
work.  He  was  just  as  autocratic  in  demand 
ing  that  his  will  be  followed  in  the  lines  of 
democracy  and  of  what  he  called  equality,  as 
ever  the  fiercest  of  the  old  forefather  kings 
had  been  in  compelling  aristocracy  and  what 
they  termed  superiority.  Besides  banishing 
and  hotpotting,  ever  so  many  new  punish 
ments  were  in  vogue  with  him. 

One  punishment  consisted  in  putting  some 
thing  queer-shaped  under  you  and  blowing 
you  to  pieces  and  letting  you  tumble  together 
again  any  way  you  happened  to.  One  subject 
invented  a  machine  that  would  hold  you  to 
gether  in  shape,  even  though  you  tumbled  to 
pieces  when  the  bomb  went  off.  It  was  a 
sort  of  thing  such  as  the  children  of  the  earth 
play  with,  the  tumble-down-picked-together 
skeleton,  you  know. 

He  was  quickly  found  out  and  duly  dis 
posed  of  by  being  made  to  spend  the  rest  of 
his  days  in  being  constantly  blown  up  and 
putting  himself  together  again,  so  that, 
pretty  soon,  he  didn't  any  more  know  what 
was  coming  than  stock  speculators  do  in  the 
land  of  the  earth. 

Hypocrates  Socrates  Moon  drew  the  water 
that  was  used  in  his' kingdom  down  from  a 


WHERE  THE  SUN  SHINES  11 

well  in  a  pail.  This  well  was  suspended  over 
the  castle,  way,  way  up  in  the  air.  By  the 
bye,  this  air  was  less  like  vital  fluid  than 
like  the  atmosphere  of  a  New  York  tenement 
house.  When  he  grew  tired  of  carrying  the 
pail,  he  hung  it  on  a  horn  that  stuck  out  on 
the  end  of  his  kingdom  in  the  funniest  man 
ner.  When  the  horn  took  care  of  the  pail,  all 
well  and  good.  When,  as  was  sometimes  the 
case,  the  horn  turned  the  other  way,  in  ac 
cordance  with  the  general,  but  sometimes 
broken  rule  of  having  things  upside  down, 
such  a  deluge  poured  from  the  little  pail  upon 
the  subjects  that,  with  one  accord,  they  fled 
to  the  subterranean  rivers.  There  they  con 
cealed  themselves  until  the  horn  could  take 
care  of  its  charge  again. 

As  in  most  epidemics  of  fear,  this  method 
of  protection  had  been  followed,  in  the  first 
instance,  on  account  of  the  real  fright  of 
some  one  person.  Having  found  its  advan 
tages,  the  subjects  were  no  longer  averse  to 
pursuing  the  policy  on  every  possible  occa 
sion.  The  king  never  would  part  voluntarily 
with  any  of  the  treasures  of  his  land  of  the 
moon;  but  these  victims  of  the  deluge  soon 
found  that  they  could  make  away  with  vast 
quantities  of  treasure  from  the  waters  of  the 
subterranean  rivers  which  coated  them  with 
precious  metal  during  their  superimposed 
bath. 

As  the  king  refused  to  have  guards  and 
patrols  and  attempted  to  keep  his  individual 


12  WHERE  THE  SUN  SHINES 

eye  on  everything  —  another  upside  down 
method  to  which  he  was  addicted  —  his  sub 
jects  succeeded  in  evading  him  and  often  got 
away  with  an  enormous  amount  of  treasure. 

Hypocrates  Socrates  Moon  was  also  very 
fond  of  gathering  chips  for  the  cook's 
kitchen  fire.  In  this  work  —  we  must  not  call 
it  labor,  since  he  enjoyed  it  —  he  was  fol 
lowed  by  a  mangy  cur.  It  had  lost  its  voice 
and  could  not  tell  its  master  that  while  his 
royal  eye  was  fixed  upon  a  splinter,  great 
tracts  of  mammoth  pines  were  being  de 
nuded  for  the  purpose  of  making  ships  to 
transport  vast  quantities  of  wealth  away 
from  the  moon  to  the  land  of  Better-Than- 
This  and  the  Islands  of  Do-and-Dare. 

I  have  told  you  what  a  testy  old  king  was 
Hypocrates  Socrates  Moon;  how  really  mon 
archical  instead  of  democratic  were  his  de 
mands  and  punishments.  You  will  not  be 
surprised,  then,  to  learn  how  he  treated  his 
son. 

One  evening,  as  he  was  about  to  shut  up 
his  kingdom,  at  curfew,  he  found  that  his 
youngest  son,  Biocletes,  was  missing. 

Biocletes  had  always  been  a  difficult  pro 
position  to  the  old  father.  Instead  of  terrori 
zing  the  boy,  the  king's  method  of  training 
was  accomplishing  what  he  claimed  for  it 
but,  somehow,  never  seemed  pleased  to  see 
realized.  It  had  stirred  up  the  protoplasmic 
brain  of  Biocletes  on  which  no  binding  of 
crown  had  ever  made  its  compression. 


WHERE  THE  SUN  SHINES  13 

The  father,  finding  that  this  youngest  son 
of  his  had  gone  off  on  some  still  hunt  of  his 
own,  was  furiously  angry.  He  was  so  en 
raged,  that,  at  first,  he  almost  decided  to  put 
the  young  man  on  to  the  throne.  He  would 
compel  him  to  wear  the  crown,  until  his  skull 
should  be  surely  beyond  chance  of  future  in 
crease  in  service  or  individual  achievement. 

Somehow,  that  punishment,  upon  consid 
eration,  did  not  seem  severe  enough  to  fit  the 
crime.  Finally,  he  determined  to  visit  upon 
the  boy,  the  very  worst  of  all  his  punish 
ments.  This,  as  I  have  said  before,  consisted 
in  exiling  the  offender  into  the  land  of  stern 
experience,  there  to  test  himself  out.  So, 
with  a  roar  of  rage,  the  king  himself  —  he 
had  no  gatekeeper  —  crashed  to  the  gates  of 
his  dominions,  which  suddenly  dropped  out 
of  sight  behind  some  forest  trees. 

Just  as  the  gates  swung  to,  a  small  voice 
was  heard  outside. 

"It's  me,  father,  it's  me!"  You  see  that 
even  in  grammar  the  moon  had  its  own  up 
side  down  methods  of  expression,  "Papa,  it's 
me!" 

"Stay  there,  then!"  Hypocrates  Socrates 
was  more  furious  than  ever  at  not  being 
called  by  his  dress  up  name.  You  see,  it  was 
the  upside  down  idea  of  moondom  that  aris 
tocrats  are  just  as  entitled  to  prefixes  to  their 
names  as  are  democrats  and  laborers! 

"Papa!  Father!  King  Hypocrates  Socra 
tes  Moon!  Let  me  in,  I  beg!" 


14  WHERE  THE  SUN  SHINES 

Now,  another  upside  down  and  extremely 
funny  way  known  nowhere  (?)  outside  the 
moon,  was  this :  The  king,  having  made  up 
his  mind,  couldn't  see  matters  in  any  other 
light.  Having  once  been  addressed  in  a  cer 
tain  manner,  he  could  not  seem  to  hear  from 
his  son's  lips,  any  other  name  than  the  des 
pised  "papa!"  however  much  the  boy  might 
resort,  later,  to  most  elaborate  titles.  Having 
trained  his  son  in  the  beginnings  of  indivi 
dual  thinking,  nevertheless,  he  could  not  for 
a  moment  brook  the  idea  of  having  the  boy 
use  his  own  mind  against  him  —  the  king!  — 
He  should  do  and  dare  only  after  the  ideas 
and  plans  of  His  Majesty,  King  Hypocrates 
Socrates  Moon. 

With  all  this  in  his  mind,  the  old  King  re 
mained  obdurate. 

"O  noble  King  Hypocrates  Socrates  Moon, 
let  me  in,  I  beg!" 

"Not  I!"  roared  His  Majesty,  who  was 
democratic  enough  to  bellow  at  people.  He 
felt,  that,  by  so  doing,  he  pandered  to  a  still 
flowing  current  of  royalty  within  him,  even 
though  it  might  move  sluggishly. 

"O  Sir  Hypoc— " 

Incensed  at  the  pertinacity  of  his  son  —  a 
trait  that  was  a  special  gift  from  his  father, 
as  well  as  to  silence  the  boy's  pleadings,  the 
king  turned  the  liquid  silver  waters  of  the 
subterranean  rivers  upon  him.  In  his  wrath, 
he  did  not  note  that  he  had  made  a  mistake 
and  was  not,  as  he  had  intended,  deluging  the 


WHERE  THE  SUN  SHINES  15 

recreant  with  the  ordinary  drinking  waters 
of  the  sky  well. 

"Shut  up !"  he  bellowed.  Thereby,  he  pro 
ceeded  to  shut  him  out  —  the  more  surely  by 
a  double  barricading  of  the  heavy  gates. 

The  young  prince  suddenly  found  himself 
covered  from  head  to  foot  with  glittering 
silver.  The  drops  that  continued  to  fall  after 
the  downpour  had  ceased,  formed  delicate 
chasings  and  brilliant  sparkling  ornaments 
for  his  armor  and  a  helmet  of  beautiful 
workmanship  for  his  head. 

The  irate  father  had  quickly  discovered  the 
mistake  he  had  made,  and  shut  the  spillway 
so  that  this  beautiful  punishment  was  robbed 
of  what  might  otherwise  have  proven  too 
weighty  in  result. 

"Get  out  and  stay  out !"  he  roared,  opening 
the  gates  of  his  kingdom  a  wee  bit.  Thereby, 
because  of  his  anger,  he  weakened  the  first 
terrifying  effects  of  the  penalty,  for  the 
open  entrance  allowed  light  to  escape  and 
fall  for  a  short  distance  on  the  dense  black 
ness  that  spread  before  the  exile.  Thus  he 
was  enabled  to  see  a  very  little  way  into  the 
unknown  into  which  he  was  shortly  to  be 
plunged. 

"Learn  what  it  means  to  disobey  my  com 
mands  !"  Before  the  final  slamming  to  of  the 
gates,  the  king  threw  into  the  pathetic  face 
of  the  exile,  one  handful  after  another  of 
diamonds  and  amethysts  and  pearls  and  gold 
dust,  not  to  help  him  on  his  way;  but  as  an 


16  WHERE  THE  SUN  SHINES 

especially  vindictive  assistance  to  his  exo 
dus.  These  embedded  themselves  in  the  still 
soft  and  malleable  coating  forming'  the  silver 
armor.  The  gates  shut  again  with  an 
ominous  menace  of  finality  and  Biocletes 
Socrates  Moon  was  left  alone  in  black  and 
impenetrable  darkness. 


CHAPTER  II 

Prince  Biocletes  felt  deeply  grieved  at  his 
father's  wrath;  but  bravely  decided  to  pene 
trate  the  blackness  about  him,  and  if  he  could 
get  any  light  upon  his  surroundings,  to  in 
vestigate  the  country. 

For  a  long  time  he  struggled  on.  He  heard 
voices.  These  came  to  him  through  the 
blackness.  They  expressed  nothing  but  a 
jargon  of  noises  that  made  his  flesh  creep. 
Earnestly,  but  in  vain,  he  tried  to  translate 
the  sounds  into  directions  for  himself  and 
release  from  his  predicament.  The  gelati 
nous  substance  within  the  skull  that  had  es 
caped  the  compression  of  the  inhibiting  cir 
clet  called  crown,  seemed  to  roll  about  in  his 
head  as  if  trying  to  attract  his  attention. 
Biocletes  did  not  recognize  the  movement  as 
any  effort  on  the  part  of  his  wits  to  assert 
themselves.  The  movement  made  his  head 
feel  a  trifle  queer. 

While  he  was  trying  to  overcome  the  dis 
agreeable  sensation  of  incipient  thinking,  one 
by  one  the  voices  of  the  dark  grew  fainter, 
fading  away  before  the  brain  stirrings  of 
their  intended  victim. 

Still  the  dark  rolled  about  him  like  unto 
the  surf  of  the  sea.  It  tossed  him  upon  great 
crests  and  flung  him  into  troughs.  Slimy 
monsters,  like  the  fabled  creatures  of  the 


18  WHERE  THE  SUN  SHINES 

deep  swam  beside  him.  The  slipperiness  of 
the  blackness,  moulded  into  indistinguishable 
forms,  sickened  him  until  he  thought  that  he 
should  die.  The  moonlight  was  cold  and 
queer.  It  had  always  given  him  the  impres 
sion  that  it  was  something  dead.  Had  he 
thought,  he  might  have  expressed  the  im 
pression  this  way:  It  was  less  like  what  he 
would  call  real  light  than  it  was  like  the  fun 
gus  that  exudes  and  shines  with  malefic  and 
uncertain  glow  above  the  bodies  on  the  battle 
fields.  These,  having  given  up  their  inha 
bitants  —  their  souls  —  make  holocaust  of 
the  gasses  and  the  tissues  that  formed  them, 
the  sooner  to  free  their  souls  from  what 
those  coverings  had  bound  them  to.  It  had 
been  thoroughly  unsatisfactory,  even  nau 
seous,  to  him,  but  it  had  been  better  than 
this  awful  black  dark  that  seemed  so  fright 
fully  busy  and  teeming  with  venomous  life. 
So  dreadfully  sly  about  it,  too. 

He  was  tossed  and  pitched  and  tumbled 
about  so  much  that  if  you  had  been  there 
you  surely  must  have  thought  he  was  in  a 
training  camp  for  moving  picture  pugilists. 
When  he  was  standing  up,  he  found  he  was 
sitting  down  with  a  great  weight  upon  his 
chest.  As  soon  as  he  began  to  wonder  if  he 
had  a  chest  and  where  it  was,  he  was  landed 
(so  he  might  have  described  the  scenario 
from  his  knowledge  of  moving  pictures) 
upon  a  table  in  the  midst  of  hot  apple  pie, 
custard  and  wine  bottles. 


WHERE  THE  SUN  SHINES  19 

Prohibition  had  reached  the  moon  as  well 
as  the  earth.  Though  there  was  no  wine,  the 
king,  for  the  sake  of  auld  lang  syne  clung  to 
the  bottles  and  caraffes,  because  it  gave 
esprit,  if  not  spirit  in  toto,  to  the  banquet 
table.  He  was  so  mean,  was  Hypocrates  So 
crates  Moon,  there,  really,  never  was  very 
much  other  than  esprit  at  the  table.  Food 
cost  too  much,  he  grumbled  and  people  were 
such  pigs  you  couldn't  serve  it  again.  Now, 
dishes  were  a  different  matter.  Those,  you 
could  use  over  and  over.  Good  dishes  and 
wine  bottles  gave  a  very  fine  appearance, 
without  such  a  tremendous  expenditure  be 
yond  the  initial  cost,  centuries  ago.  The  in 
terest  on  the  money?  He  did  grudge  that; 
but  he  had  borrowed  it  for  practically 
nothing,  intended  never  to  repay  it;  so  one 
might  really  call  it  an  investment.  This  up 
side  down  method  seemed  to  him,  entirely 
original,  and  he  proudly  declared  that  such 
skilful  financing  was  unknown  in  any  other 
land  or  sphere  in  all  the  universes. 

Yes,  Biocletes  was  no  sooner  landed  in  the 
midst  of  wine  bottles  and  ice  cream  than  he 
felt  himself  go  whop  into  the  arms  of  an 
angel  of  beauty  who  proved  to  be  a  wild  cat 
in  human  form.  She  had  a  garrotte  and  mar 
velous  strength  in  her  hands.  The  garrotte, 
she  proceeded  to  use  with  such  skill  that  she 
all  but  killed  him  —  really  thought  she  had 
done  so,  and  flung  him  contemptuously  on  to 
the  crest  of  a  mammoth  wave.  Again  he 


20  WHERE  THE  SUN  SHINES 

heard  monster  voices  travelling  along  beside 
him.  One  contended  with  another  as  to 
which  would  finally  swallow  him  when  the 
waves  and  the  moving  picture  beauties  and 
pugilists  had  churned  him  into  a  substance 
sufficiently  digestible. 

Next,  Biocletes  found  himself  inside  an 
immense  cream  whip  and  felt  himself  be 
coming  all  froth. 

This  gave  him  rather  a  sense  of  relief.  He 
did  not  believe  that  fish  would  care  to  eat 
anything  so  foamy  as  he  felt  he  had  become. 
He  thought  they  could  eat  the  foam  off  the 
tops  of  the  waves  if  they  wanted  froth. 

At  last  he  realized  that  all  this  tossing  and 
beating  was  for  the  purpose  of  making  him 
as  light  as  possible..  He  felt  the  cover  fly  off 
the  cream  whip,  and  over  he  foamed  —  all  of 
him,  strange  to  say! 

He  was  poured  into  the  current  of  a  breeze 
that  lifted  him  away  from  the  fish  voices 
and  the  strange  mixture  into  which  he  had 
been  tossed,  of  ocean  and  banquet  table, 
cream  whip  and  moving  picture  town.  It 
bore  him  along,  he  wondering  where,  until 
the  gelatine  inside  the  skull  began  to  form 
into  tiny  cells  through  the  speed  of  his  transit 
and  the  intensity  of  his  attempts  to  think  out 
where  he  was  going  to  land. 

On  he  was  taken  in  the  arms  of  the  breeze, 
which  grew  momentarily  to  the  proportions 
of  a  hurricane,  on,  on,  in  a  state  of  wild  un 
reasoning  undirected  precipitancy.  Had  he 


WHERE  THE  SUN  SHINES  21 

not  been  held  to  a  centre  by  the  very  fury  of 
the  motion  about  him  surely  what  was  left 
of  him  as  froth,  from  the  cream  whip;  as 
will,  from  the  ocean  billows  and  their  fur 
rows,  and  as  courage,  from  the  whispering 
sea  monsters,  would  have  been  tossed  into 
particles  of  air  and  disintegrated. 

Strange  to  say,  the  gelatine  within  the 
skull  which  bore  upon  its  shape  and  sub 
stance  the  felon  brand  of  crown,  was  forming 
more  and  more,  through  this  wild  irresistible 
motion,  into  cells,  that,  each  unto  itself, 
seemed  to  demand  something.  To  demand  it 
futilely  and  weakly;  still,  to  demand. 

As  yet,  through  it  all,  there  had  come  to 
Prince  Biocletes  no  definite  call  to  go  or  to 
come  to  any  specific  decision  or  place.  When, 
at  length,  the  tornado  had  exhausted,  spent, 
capitulated  itself  and  all  its  treasures  to  the 
superior  forces  of  calm,  with  more  real  true 
air  in  him  than  he  had  ever  inhaled  before, 
Biocletes  Socrates  Moon  found  himself  in  the 
midst  of  a  stillness  so  deep,  so  searching,  so 
invigorating,  that  the  litttle  cells  within  the 
emancipated  forehead  whispered  feebly,  "I 
would  rest." 


CHAPTER  III 

Slowly,  softly,  gently,  Biocletes  Socrates 
Moon  was  wafted  down  on  a  couch  of  green 
such  as  his  own  land  of  the  moon  had  never 
disclosed  to  him. 

When  he  had  rested  a  little,  he  looked 
sleepily  about  him.  He  found  himself  in  a 
land  quite  different  from  his  own.  There 
was  no  snow.  All  about  him  were  great  bou 
quets  of  green  in  immense  wooden  bouquet 
holders.  These  towered  many  feet  in  the 
air.  He  found  he  was  cradled  in  the  heart  of 
one  of  these  bouquets,  that  it  felt  very  pleas 
ant  and  smelt  very  sweet.  Strange  feathered 
things  that  sang  in  musical  twittering  notes 
came  close  to  him.  Though  it  was  dark,  it 
was  not  the  horrid  dark  that  had  surrounded 
him  when  he  was  tossed  about  on  the  crests 
and  in  the  troughs  of  the  sea.  The  voices 
of  these  feathered  things  seemed  friendly. 
They  seemed  to  whisper  advice  through  the 
shadows,  advice  he  could  not  understand  but 
felt  to  be  good.  The  tiny  cells  moved  about 
in  his  head  until  they  fairly  squirmed  in  their 
desire  to  know  what  was  meant  by  what  was 
being  said.  This  made  his  head  feel  very  un 
certain  and  wriggly. 

He  put  out  his  hand  to  touch  the  twitter 
ing  creatures.  His  fingers  rested  on  the  funny 


WHERE  THE  SUN  SHINES  23 

beds  they  were  nestling  in  —  little  roundish 
things  made  of  horsehair  and  hay  and  straw 
and  bits  of  paper.  He  tried  to  penetrate  the 
darkness,  that,  with  his  eyes  he  might  exa 
mine  more  closely,  these  tiny  houses.  All  he 
could  see  with  his  eyes,  was  two  small  round 
blazing  things,  as,  with  a  bloodcurdling  hoot, 
something  sailed  heavily  away.  Biocletes 
nearly  fainted  with  terror.  As  for  the  cells 
within  the  crown-warped  head,  they  fairly 
began  to  talk  to  each  other  in  the  great  and 
overwhelming  surprise  and  excitement  of 
these  wonderful  experiences. 

Biocletes  lay  quiet  for  some  time  after  this 
shock.  He  decided  that  he  would  wait  awhile 
before  striving  to  penetrate  the  dark  that 
was  so  dense.  He  seemed  to  feel,  however, 
that  the  blackness  was  losing  its  spissitude, 
that  it  was  becoming  gray.  As  he  lay  there 
all  alone,  he  began  to  think  about  the  home 
he  had  left.  He  cast  his  eyes  about  in  vain 
conjecture  as  to  its  whereabouts  and  the  path 
he  had  travelled  to  get  into  this  land  of  Don't 
Know  Where. 

As  his  eyes  circled  the  horizon,  they  espied 
a  mass  of  clouds  rushing  along  over  a  blue 
field  in  which  was  set  a  pale  gold  ball.  It  was 
that  which  had  given  a  gray  shade  to  the 
density  of  the  blackness  that  was  surround 
ing  him.  He  did  not  know  what  it  was.  In 
fact,  it  was  the  kingdom  of  the  old  king, 
Hypocrates  Socrates  Moon,  who  had  gotten 
over  his  rage  at  the  disobedience  of  his  son, 


24 

and  was  in  a  passion  of  grief  at  what  he  had 
done  to  his  baby.  For  some  time,  he  had  been 
sending  out  search  lights  to  guide  the  lad 
home  again;  but  the  search  lights  had  availed 
naught,  though  the  king  had  given  orders 
to  keep  the  lights  burning  brightly  for  many 
nights,  always,  until  the  day  should  come. 

The  search  lights  from  this  big  gold  ball 
high  up  in  the  sky  had  dispelled  more  of  the 
darkness.  Now  it  was  almost  bright  about 
Biocletes.  The  lad's  head  felt  all  wiggly 
again  as  the  newly  made  cells  began  to  talk 
to  each  other  and  to  look  out  with  a  dull  in 
terest  upon  what  the  dim  light  was  revealing 
to  them.  Half  distinguishable  objects  piqued 
their  curiosity.  They  all  made  such  a  pecu 
liar  stir  inside  Biocletes  that  he  rose  from  his 
leafy  resting  place  and  walked  straight  off 
the  trees  and  out  to  the  air.  He  threaded  the 
path  on  a  noble  highway  of  atmosphere  until 
he  discerned  a  light  far,  far  below.  At  first, 
it  seemed  as  if  he  would  continue  listessly  on 
the  path  by  which  he  had  first  left  the  iree; 
that  is,  unless  he  was  shaken  or  tossed,  or, 
in  some  way,  other  than  by  his  own  direction, 
compelled  to  change  his  course.  The  queer 
feeling  came  to  his  head  again.  That  head  of 
his  was  doing  funny  things  inside  itself.  It 
seemed  to  be  attracted  to  that  light  far,  far 
below.  Before  Biocletes  realized  it  thorough 
ly,  his  whole  being  tingled  to  find  out  what 
that  light  would  reveal  to  him.  Added  to 
that  sense  of  attraction,  there  came  a  feeling 


WHERE  THE  SUN  SHINES  25 

neither  entirely  new  nor  yet,  entirely  old, — 
a  feeling  that  he  wished  to  follow  that  at 
traction  and  find  out  what  good  and  pleasant 
thing  awaited  him  down  there  in  the  light. 

No  sooner  had  he  made  up,  what  were  the 
beginnings  of  his  mind,  to  seek  that  light, 
than,  with  incredible  speed  and  with  no  dif 
ficulty  at  all,  he  shot  accurately  down  into 
the  very  heart  thereof.  He  found  himself 
beside  a  stream  in  which  water  sprites  were 
disporting  gaily. 

"Good  evening  to  you,"  said  one,  floating 
lightly  upon  the  surface,  as  she  greeted  the 
prince.  "So  you  are  a  moonbeam,  I  presume!" 
She  laughed  saucily. 

"I  am  Prince  Biocletes  Socrates  Moon,  son 
of  His  Majesty,  Hypocrates  Socrates  Moon." 
Biocletes  was  very  dignified.  He  was  very 
much  disturbed  at  the  flippancy  of  this  beau 
tiful  creature  and  determined  to  check  it  at 
once  with  a  manner  of  hauteur.  As  one  of 
the  crown-branded  race  of  aristocrats,  he 
had  been  far  more  in  the  habit  of  addressing 
others  as  the  water  sprite  was  addressing 
him,  than  he  was  of  being  so  addressed.  He 
recalled  that  his  father  often  talked  that 
way,  when  he  did  not  roar  and  bellow  at  you. 
This  lovely  creature  cooed  at  you  and  her 
voice  was  limpid  and  sweet  and  made  your 
heart  feel  as  if  it  were  being  drawn  gently 
by  some  invisible  chain,  straight  down  to 
the  gleaming  throat  of  the  sprite.  The  feel 
ing  sent  funny  sensations  to  his  arms  that 


26  WHERE  THE  SUN  SHINES 

twitched  to  enfold  her.  It  told  his  lips  that 
there  were  none  sweeter  in  all  the  world  for 
his  own  to  rest  upon,  than  the  lips  of  the 
wonderful  being  who  floated  on  the  water 
before  him,  once  in  a  while,  disappearing  be 
neath  the  sparkling  waves,  the  further  to 
tantalize  him. 

His  head  stopped  feeling  wiggly  just  then, 
quite  as  if  the  cells  inside  had  gone  back  to 
gelatine  again;  but  a  very  strange  feeling 
began  in  his  left  side  just  under  his  ribs. 
When  he  tried  to  answer  the  saucy  sprite,  a 
dry  feeling  prevented  his  articulating  clearly. 
When  he  succeeded  in  speaking  at  all,  he 
scarcely  recognized  his  voice,  it  was  so  soft. 
All  the  hauteur  had  gone  out  of  it,  and  there 
had  come  into  it,  a  quality  that  was  really 
very  humble.  It  was  a  different  sort  of  hum 
ble  from  that  he  felt  toward  his  father  when 
he  wanted  to  get  home  and  was  frightened. 
He  was  a  little  bit  frightened,  now;  but  it 
was  a  delicious  fright. 

Of  course  Biocletes  did  not  stop  to  analyze 
all  these  feelings.  He  only  kept  on  enjoying 
the  bumpy  feeling  about  the  lower  part  of 
his  ribs,  and  the  choky  feeling  in  his  throat. 
As  to  the  way  he  was  mumbling  his  speech, 
that  didn't  seem  to  matter  so  much,  for  the 
sprite  was  still  talking,  and  in  such  an  inde 
pendent  saucy  manner  that  all  these  feelings 
inside  him  were  being  made  to  increase 
rather  than  to  diminish. 

"Where's  the  moon?"  the  sprite  was  in- 


WHERE  THE  SUN  SHINES  27 

quiring  with  her  delicious  soupcon  of  impu 
dence. 

"He  has  retired,  madame,"  Biocletes  tried 
to  make  this  response  sound  stiff  and  royal. 
He  failed  signally. 

The  sprite  was  not  in  the  least  bit  abashed. 
She  only  laughed. 

"Oh,  you  are  shut  out,  are  you!" 

This  remark  made  him  feel  so  very  much 
like  a  little  boy,  that  he  made  no  reply.  Not 
until  then,  had  it  occurred  to  him  how  very 
weak-minded  he  must  seem  to  others,  that 
he  had  not  the  will  to  get  into  his  own  habita 
tion. 

"But  then,"  he  sighed  inwardly,  "Not 
everyone  knows  what  a  terror  of  a  father  I 
have." 

Although  Biocletes'  father  had  made  a 
present  of  some  of  his  own  will  to  Biocletes, 
when  the  boy  was  born,  he  had  spent  all  of 
Biocletes'  life  in  trying  to  crush  that  will  out 
of  his  son  and  increase  his  own  holdings  in 
the  precious  commodity.  For  that  reason, 
Biocletes,  though  the  cause  was  not  patent, 
to  him,  had  been,  when  at  home,  at  a  great 
disadvantage  as  regards  the  exercise  of  his 
will.  Now  that  he  was  away  from  the  stern 
parental  eye,  that  will  rose  within  him,  to 
gether  with  a  feeling  he  had  never  had  be 
fore.  An  earth  man  would  have  recognized 
it  somewhat  akin  to  choler.  No  sprite  like 
this  beauty  should  play  upon  his  will  or  on 
that  queer  thing  that  thumped  so  under  his 


28  WHERE  THE  SUN  SHINES 

ribs  and  made  him  want  alternately  to  kiss 
her  for  her  charm  and  spank  her  for  her 
naughtiness.  He  would  speak  if  he  wanted 
to  and  as  he  wanted  to,  with  no  mealy  mouth 
or  humble  pie! 

"Don't  you  mind,"  the  sprite  was  saying 
comfortingly,  in  such  dulcet  tones  that  Bio- 
cletes  immediately  felt  something  that  had 
begun  to  stiffen  inside  him,  grow  soft  like  a 
whalebone  that  your  corsetiere  puts  in  water 
all  night  so  she  can  shape  it  into  your  corsets. 

"Tonight  is  a  capital  night  to  be  out  in  the 
world!  Dear  me!  I  wouldn't  stay  in  the 
moon  with  everything  upside  down,  for  any 
thing!" 

"Upside  down?  Is  everything  upside 
down?" 

"Sure,"  retorted  the  sprite  jocularly. 

"Perhaps  that  is  why  I  always  felt  rather 
out  of  place  there.  I  would  prefer  to  have 
things  right  side  up.  Are  things  always  right 
side  up  in  the  earth?" 

"Sure!"  The  sprite's  vocabulary  did  not 
seem  very  extensive.  "Let's  go  on  some  tra 
vels."  She  rose  from  the  water  and  floated 
in  the  air  like  the  delicate  mist  that  rises 
over  the  river  as  the  sun  goes  down. 

"I  thank  you,  madame,"  Biocletes  returned 
politely,  even  if  a  trifle  stiffly  and  stiltedly 
and  with  a  degree  of  humility  that  undoubt 
edly  pleased  the  sprite. 

So  they  started  out. 


WHERE  THE  SUN  SHINES  29 

"I  should  like  to  go  to  that  castle  over 
there  on  the  hillside,"  said  the  sprite. 

"Very  well,"  said  Biocletes,  "So  should  I." 
They  directed  their  passage  toward  the 
castle  garden  which  they  could  see  in  the  dis 
tance. 


CHAPTER  IV 

One  scarcely  knows  how  to  describe  to 
you  the  method  of  the  locomotion  of  Bio- 
cletes  and  the  sprite.    Surely,  they  did  not 
walk,  nor  did  they  fly.    They  skimmed  the 
ground,  rose  to  the  tops  of  trees,  kissed  the 
hearts  of  the  sleeping  poppies  and  caressed 
the  roses,  sometimes   lingering,    sometimes 
moving  swiftly.     Perhaps  it  might  be  said 
that  they  danced  their  way;  but  oh,  the  pass 
ing  of  them  was  beautiful.  All  heaviness  of 
motion  they  were  relieved  of,  at  the  same 
time  they  had  weight  enough  to  do  what 
they  wished  to   with  themselves.    If   they 
wanted  to  sit  upon  a  thistle  down,  they  could 
do  so;  also,  they  could  remain  there  without 
holding  on  to  it  lest  a  vagrant,  lightminded 
zephyr  blow  them  away.   They  were  a  wee 
bit  afraid  of  the  big  winds.  Biocletes  recalled 
the  fury  of  the  embrace  of  the  big  wind  that 
had  landed  him  on  the  forest  trees,  (that  is 
what   the  sprite  told   Biocletes   they  were 
named,  laughing  scornfully  at  his  ignorance, 
the  while.)    She  made  Biocletes  feel  that  he 
would  learn  as  quickly  as  possible  so  the 
sprite  might  have  no  honest  reason  to  make 
fun  of  him. 

The  sprite  said  that  a  breeze  of  any  sort 
irritated  her  extremely.  She  said  it  made  her 


WHERE  THE  SUN  SHINES  31 

feel  as  if  she  was  going  to  be  dried  up,  pre 
sently,  dried  up  to  nothing,  and  never  find 
herself  as  her  old  self  any  more.  She  said  she 
felt  as  if  it  might  turn  her  into  a  cloud  or 
something,  or  tip  her  into  the  water,  never 
to  come  out  again ;  not  to  drown  exactly,  but 
—  oh  dear,  she  didn't  know  what !  She  only 
knew  it  made  her  feel  fretty.  But  what  was 
the  use  of  getting  into  the  way  of  anything 
that  made  you  feel  fretty,  when  you  could 
rest  under  tall  blades  of  grass  and  let  the 
old  breeze  hunt  for  you  if  it  wanted  to,  and 
never  find  you !  She  said  a  breeze  had  to  stop 
to  take  breath,  and  while  it  was  blowing 
itself  up  inside,  for  another  onslaught  on 
something  or  somebody,  they  two  could  just 
skip  out  from  one  hiding  place  to  another. 
Anyway,  she  said,  breezes  didn't  cover  the 
earth.  They  were  dreadfully  limited.  Why, 
she  had  seen  corn  fields  blown  all  to  bits,  and 
right  near  by,  it  would  be  so  still,  near  the 
brooks  in  the  valleys,  that  you  almost 
smother  for  a  breath.  It  was  all  very  funny, 
and  for  her  part,  she  didn't  intend  to  let  the 
old  breeze  frighten  her. 

She  chattered  on,  not  allowing  Biocletes  to 
get  a  bit  of  a  word  in,  till  in  the  very  midst 
of  her  big  boast  about  what  she  was  going 
to  do  with  the  wind,  a  little  whiff  of  air,  being 
a  bit  more  forceful  than  the  rest  about  her, 
sent  her  panting  under  a  mullein  leaf.  It  was 
some  time  before  Biocletes  could  coax  her 
out. 


32  WHERE  THE  SUN  SHINES 

"Come,"  he  urged,  "It  all  looks  so  wonder 
ful  to  me  and  there  is  so  much  to  see,  do  let's 
hurry." 

"Now  that  is  an  awfully  silly  speech  of 
yours,  Biocletes!"  The  sprite  crawled  out 
from  under  the  mullein  leaf  not  a  bit  abashed 
at  her  cowardice.  "The  quicker  you  learn  it, 
the  better  it  will  be  for  you." 

"Learn  what  special  thing?  I  have  very 
much  to  learn;  but  what  is  the  specialty?" 

"That  you  can  go  quicker  by  going  slow, 
than  you  can  by  hurrying.  Hurrying  makes 
you  so  fearfully  nervous.  It  dries  you  up, 
too." 

"What  makes  you  talk  so  much  about  dry 
ing  up?  I  never  think  of  drying  up." 

"Of  course  not!"  scornfully.  "You'd  only 
slide  out  and  disappear,  go  up  in  moonshine, 
if  anything  scared  you  very  much.  Now,  if  I 
were  to  dry  up,  I  feel  sure  I'd  be  something 
else.  Dear  me,  I  don't  believe  you'd  ever  be 
anything  else  but  moonshine.  Moonshine  is 
always  just  moonshine,  or  else  nothing  at 
all." 

"That  makes  me  feel  very  sad."  Prince 
Biocletes  sounded  very  mournful.  "I  do  want 
to  be  something  worth  while.  You  have 
made  me  see  things  so  different.  You  are  a 
wee  bit  spiteful  at  times,  but  that  may  be 
good  for  me.  I'd  never  met  but  two  sorts  of 
treatment  in  all  my  life;  either  a  dreary  lot 
of  respect  from  my  father's  subjects,  or  a 
dreadful  amount  of  abuse  from  my  father. 


WHERE  THE  SUN  SHINES  33 

Neither  kind  is  companionable.   I  never  had 
a  companion  before  I  met  you." 

Ingratiatingly,  he  moved  a  little  nearer  to 
the  sprite,  and  started  to  put  his  arm  about 
her.  The  sprite  dodged  the  approaching 
caress. 

"Pshaw!  That  isn't  what  companions  do! 
Companions  take  hands  and  skip  rope  over 
the  gossamers.  Don't  you  see  those  lovely 
gossamers  spread  over  the  grass?  They  are 
most  wonderful  things !  Nobody  knows  who 
put  them  there,  or  how  they  got  there.  Some 
people  call  them  spider  webs;  but  they  are 
not.  They  are  just  —  just — "  The  volubility 
of  the  sprite  failed  her.  She  closed  her  de 
scription  with  jumping  over  one  or  two  of 
the  gossamers  and  stopping  before  another 
one. 

"Pretty  dear,  it  looks  thirsty  and  not  so 
happy  as  the  others.  I  am  going  to  give  it  a 
present." 

She  breathed  upon  it.  A  refreshing  dew 
spread  over  the  surface  of  the  dainty  gossa 
mer. 

"Suppose  you  kiss  it!"  she  laughed,  "Do 
your  initial  lovemaking  on  her  instead  of  on 
me.  I  have  found  that  initial  lovemakers  are 
very  poor  at  the  work.  I'd  rather  you  would 
take  lessons  on  someone  else.  Come,  quick, 
make  love  to  the  gossamer." 

"How?" 

Truly  enough,  the  bewildered  Biocletes 
had  little  idea  of  lovemaking.  The  cells  in 


34  WHERE  THE  SUN  SHINES 

his  head  had  suddenly  stopped  working  as 
if  they  had  clubbed  together  not  to  give  him 
a  single  idea.  The  bumpity-bump  which  had 
set  up  such  a  commotion  in  the  region  of  his 
ribs,  when  first  he  met  the  sprite,  was  sub 
siding,  so  that  he  was  looking  at  her  and 
thinking  of  her  less  now,  than  he  was  of  the 
wonders  opening  up  before  him  on  every 
side. 

"How!"  scoffed  the  sprite,  "The  idea  of 
asking  me  how!  Kiss  her!" 

The  sprite  had  noted  how  much  more 
clearly  Biocletes  was  speaking  when  he 
addressed  her.  She  resented  it  that  he  no 
longer  choked  and  palpitated  when  he  looked 
at  her  or  she  at  him.  She  wished  to  play  a 
trick  on  him.  She  knew  the  gossamer  would 
not  reciprocate  his  attentions.  She  hoped, 
that,  in  his  disappointment,  he  would  turn 
again  ,  to  her,  with  the  open,  unaffected 
admiration  of  their  first  meeting. 

Instead  of  imprinting  a  kiss  on  the  lips  of 
the  gossamer,  Biocletes  plucked  a  handful  of 
gems  from  one  of  his  pockets.  When  the  old 
king  had  pelted  him  ignominiously  from  his 
kingdom,  the  gold  and  gems  he  had  thrown, 
in  lieu  of  stones  and  bricks,  had  landed  and 
adhered,  not  only  to  his  son's  armor,  as  we 
already  know;  but  many  had  fallen  into  his 
pockets,  so  that,  in  the  markets  of  the  earth, 
Biocletes  would  find  himself  more  than 
worth  his  weight  in  precious  stones. 

The  gossamer  scintillated  with  pleasure. 


WHERE  THE  SUN  SHINES  35 

She  knew  she  was  beautiful,  only  when 
adorned  with  sparkling  gems.  The  jewels 
became  her  mightily,  so  well,  indeed,  that 
the  sprite,  seeing  the  admiration  in  his  eyes, 
foresaw  for  herself,  a  terrible  downfall. 
Hastily,  she  pulled  the  prince  away. 

"See  how  selfish  she  is,  vain  thing!  All 
she  wants  is  to  get  what  she  can  from  you 
without  giving  you  anything  in  return.  The 
garden  belonging  to  the  castle  will  treat  you 
better.  Let  us  skim  along.  I  felt  a  sort  of 
shiver,  just  now  —  a  shiver  that  a  dreadful 
hag,  called  dawn,  sends  ahead  of  her  to  let 
us  know  she  is  coming.  It  is  well  for  both 
you  and  me  to  keep  out  of  her  reach.  Come !" 

On  they  flitted,  the  sprite  laughing  and  en 
tertaining  Biocletes  until  they  reached  the 
garden. 


CHAPTER  V 

A  beautiful  garden  it  was,  all  hushed  and 
still  in  the  moonlight,  and  sweetened  by  the 
dews  of  the  evening.  Aroma,  such  as  Bio- 
cletes  had  never  inhaled,  penetrated  his  nos 
trils.  The  tiny  cells  in  the  crown-compressed 
head  stirred  again  and  talked  over  this  won 
derful  something  which  was  appealing  to 
them,  as  well.  They  decided,  in  order  to 
know,  each,  what  the  other  was  talking 
about,  to  call  this  rare  and  entrancing 
essence,  an  odor. 

"Odor,  is  a  pretty  word,"  they  said,  and, 
if  this  Biocletes  is  going  wool  gathering,  and 
collecting  all  sorts  of  things,  we  must  file  his 
findings,  or  they  will  be  in  such  a  mix  up 
he  can  not  find  them  when  he  needs  them. 
So,  they  will  do  him  little  good." 

"I  am  not  going  to  have  anything  to  do 
with  filing  his  findings  with  that  water 
sprite !  I  don't  trust  her !  If  that  thing,  called 
heart,  that  thumps  so  over  nothing,  down 
under  Biocletes'  ribs,  wants  to,  let  him;  I 
shall  not !"  said  one  cell. 

"1  notice  the  heart  is  getting  tired  of  the 
business,  already,"  returned  another  cell. 

"Let  the  heart  attend  to  its  own  affairs  in 
its  own  place  and  way,"  said  another,  conci- 
liatingly,  "We  ought  to  get  together  a  mind 


WHERE  THE  SUN  SHINES  37 

for  the  fellow.  You  know  that  pommelling 
he  received  in  the  deep  waters,  made  him 
really  breathe.  I  don't  suppose  he  ever 
honestly  did  that  before." 

"How  could  he  up  in  that  gaseous  place  he 
called  home!  You  can't  call  that  moon  stuff, 
air!  I  don't  see  how  he  ever  attained  to 
enough  of  the  spirit  of  life  to  take  his  own 
fortunes  in  his  hands.  Since  he  has  shown  so 
much  pluck,  I  want  to  help  him.  We  must 
get  some  more  good  air  into  him,  and  plenty 
of  it." 

"He  must  learn  to  breathe  better,  that's 
plain.  Let's  get  the  lungs  to  override  the 
trickeries  of  that  silly  water  sprite.  We  are 
not  making  enough  impression  on  the  man 
side  of  him." 

"I  will  tell  you  how  to  do  that.  Make  him 
see  something  that  will  inspire  him  with  the 
idea  of  work  to  be  done  and  results  to  be 
accomplished.  That  will  make  him  breathe 
with  the  very  joy  of  the  doing,  and  the  exer 
tion,  as  well.  Now,  he  is  just  lolling  about  in 
that  garden,  with  that  volatile  sprite,  who 
can't  be  depended  upon  to  do  anything  other 
than  dissolve  and  disappear  when  she  is  most 
needed,  instead  of  making  opportunity. 
Pshaw!  on  this  idea  of 'waiting  opportunity! 
Make  it,  I  say." 

"What  shall  the  opportunity  be?" 

"Something  that  will  make  him  move  fast. 
That  will  separate  him  quicker  than  any 
thing  else  from  that  wet  blanket  of  a  sprite 

447240 


38  WHERE  THE  SUN  SHINES 

who  wants  him  all  to  herself  and  for  her 
self." 

"He  should  look  about  and  see  something 
for  himself/'  said  still  another.  "We  shall 
not  be  doing  our  duty  as  citizens  of  the  town 
of  wits  if  we  do  things  for  him.  We  have 
the  privilege  of  stirring  him  up  a  bit ;  but  the 
definite  seeing  what  to  do  and  knowing  what 
he  wants  to  do,  and  seeing  the  way  to  do  it 
—  that  must  come  from  him." 

"What  an  awful  responsibility  for  a  head 
that  has  had  that  platinum  crown  on  it  ever 
since  it  was  born,  way  back  in  its  first  ances 
tor!" 

"No  worse  than  for  us  who  were  melted 
and  squashed  into  gelatine  under  its  tight 
grip.  Come!  Make  him  stir!  Time  is  pass 
ing.  We  want  to  get  him  grown  up.  There 
is  a  great  deal  for  him  to  do  in  life." 

"Life?" 

"Yes,  moondom,  earthdom  and  sundom. 
He  is  destined  for  great  things;  but  to  do 
them,  he  must  get  out  of  being  moony  and 
earthy—" 

"He  hasn't  gotten  to  be  earthy,  yet." 

"That  is  true.  He  must  have  felt  us  talk 
ing  about  him,  for  at  last  he  is  looking  some 
where  other  than  at  that  misty  moisty  water 
sprite.  His  eye  is  being  really  attracted  to 
other  things.  Let  us  hope  that  in  a  minute 
they  will  seize  on  something  tangible.  There, 
I  told  you  so!  All  by  himself,  too.  I  tell,  you, 
comrades,  he  is  growing.  What  he  sees,  and 


WHERE  THE  SUN  SHINES  39 

acts  on,  now,  is  going  to  take  him  a  long  leap 
upward  and  onward." 

Truly  enough,  and  much  to  the  distaste  of 
the  sprite,  Biocletes'  eyes  were  looking  about 
with  great  activity  and  with  a  new  intelli 
gence  in  them.  Especially,  the  sprite  did  not 
like  that  look  of  intelligence.  Intelligence  is 
a  great  big  enemy  of  many  things  —  parti 
cularly  of  things  that  cannot  be  depended 
upon. 

As  Biocletes  was  looking  about,  he  and  the 
sprite  approached  nearer  and  nearer  to  the 
castle.  It  was  a  noble  castle,  indeed.  Bal 
conies  and  turrets  and  battlements  and  other 
architectural  ornaments  of  which  Biocletes 
did  not  know  the  names,  made  the  pile  a  most 
imposing  one.  One  balcony  in  particular, 
drew  his  attention.  It  was,  indeed,  too  beau 
tiful  to  be  described.  It  especially  attracted 
him  because  he  had  an  undefined  sense  that 
it  linked  him  to  something  that  was  to  make 
a  great  impression  on  his  life. 

As,  almost  entranced,  he  stood  looking  at 
the  balcony,  he  heard  a  heavy  sigh.  It  seemed 
to  proceed  from  the  shrubbery  near  at  hand. 

Biocletes  darted  toward  the  sound.  The 
scintillations  from  his  armor  lighted  the  sha 
dowy  spaces  and  disclosed  to  him  and  the 
sprite  a  disconsolate  looking  youth. 

"What  is  the  matter?"  Prince  Biocletes 
was  most  sympathetic  in  his  inquiries.  He 
was  kindly  in  disposition,  very  willing  to 
assist  those  in  trouble. 


40  WHERE  THE  SUN  SHINES 

The  man  looked  quizzically  at  Biocletes. 

"See  here,  you  seem  a  good  sort,  I  believe 
you  can  do  something  for  me.  You  can  climb, 
can't  you?" 

"Like  a  regular  moonbeam.  I  assure  you, 
sir,  my  climbing  qualities  are  wholly  and 
completely  at  your  service." 

"Indeed,  you  are  a  good  sort.  I  believe  I 
will  confide  in  you  and  tell  you  the  whole 
story.  There's  nothing  new  about  it,  don't 
you  know!  Old  story!  Plagued  old  story! 
Old  as  the  history  of  love  itself,  I  suppose! 
Beautiful  girl !  No-account  poor  fellow.  Love 
to  distraction.  Cruel  father,  who,  between 
you  and  me,  knows  the  real  worthlessness  of 
the  fool  that  loves  the  daughter,  better  than 
the  daughter  does.  If  I  were  he,  I'd  do  the 
same  thing.  Can't  blame  him.  Hits  me  hard, 
all  the  same.  Beautiful  girl  about  to  elope 
with  the  no-account  fellow  —  he  being  my 
self.  Plot  discovered,  Girl  put  up  in  the  turret 
of  this  blooming  old  hole  of  a  stone  pile.  The 
way  into  her  parlor  is  up  a  winding  stair! 
rather,  up  that  winding  balcony.  See,  it 
starts  at  the  first  story  and  winds  on  and  on 
like  a  tivoli  board  till  you  are  too  dizzy  to 
see  straight.  Then  you  have  to  put  on  flies' 
feet  and  take  to  the  walls  and  the  vines  for 
the  rest  of  the  way  —  which  is  some!" 

He  stopped  and  drew  his  breath.  He  eyed 
Biocletes,  who,  not  understanding  the  slang 
of  the  earth-born  youth,  looked  blank. 
The  cells  under  the  crown-compressed  skull 


WHERE  THE  SUN  SHINES  41 

joined  in  a  regular  caucus  in  an  endeavor  to 
understand  and  then  to  translate  the  situa 
tion  to  their  pupil. 

"We  must  help  him  to  understand,"  said 
one.  "Don't  you  see  what  a  chance  this  is 
for  him  to  grow!  Action!  Action!  Action! 
This  is  the  greatest  good  fortune  that  could 
have  come  his  way!  It  will  interest  him,  too. 
That  will  make  him  grow  faster  still.  Now, 
all  together,  let  us  help  him  understand/' 

"I  see  what  you  mean!"  The  puzzled,  dor 
mant  look  in  Biocletes'  face,  gave  way, 
slowly,  to  a  look  of  comprehension.  "Yes! 
You  are,  what  you  call,  in  love  with  a  girl  and 
they  won't  let  you  see  her.  Eh?" 

"You've  got  me !"  The  man  was  very  crude 
in  his  speech,  thought  Biocletes.  It  jarred  on 
his  sensibilities. 

"I  want  to  get  a  note  to  her  and  I  can't 
climb.  I  want  you  to  beard  the  guard  and 
the  risk  of  tumbles  and  get  this  billet  to  her." 

"What's  a  billet?" 

"A  note,  telling  her  that  I  adore  her,  and 
won't  she  skim  down  the  ivy  vines  on  the 
silken  cord,  and  run  away  with  me  at  three 
o'clock,  tomorrow  morning  —  or  night  — 
whichever  it  is." 

"I  will  go!  Do  not  be  disturbed.  In  a 
moment's  time  the  note  shall  be  in  the  hands 
of  the  woman  you  love." 

The  bumpity-bump  feeling  started  vigor 
ously  under  Biocletes'  ribs  as  he  spoke.  One 
of  the  cells  growled. 


42  WHERE  THE  SUN  SHINES 

"There  he  goes  again,  meddlesome  heart! 
He  means  the  boy  shall  fall  in  love  with  the 
earth  man's  love.  That  would  be  a  dreadful 
state  of  affairs  —  for  an  earth  and  a  moon 
person  to  marry.  There  isn't  sense  enough 
in  either  one  to  make  up  for  the  lack  of  sense 
in  the  other." 

"I  told  you  he  must  have  action  in  order  to 
grow.  He  must  do  something  that  will  make 
him  breathe,  too.  If  I  don't  mistake,  it  will 
take  a  good  deal  of  breath  to  get  to  that 
window  way  up  there  in  the  turret,  even 
though  he  can  climb  like  a  moonbeam." 


CHAPTER  VI 

All  eyes  were  intently  fixed  upon  the 
doughty  Biocletes  as  he  ascended  to  the 
chamber  of  the  girl  he  was  already  begin 
ning  to  love,  all  codes  of  honor  notwithstand 
ing. 

Biocletes  did  not  know  that  his  inspiration 
was  love.  He  thought  it  was  a  desire  to  be 
kind  to  the  wailing  young  man  in  the  yew 
tree  hedge,  together  with  a  very  plausible 
impulse  to  seek  adventure.  Then,  too,  he  had 
a  good  healthy  wish  to  stretch  his  legs  and 
fill  his  lungs  with  the  pure,  fresh,  and  deli 
cately  scented  air  that  blew  into  his  nostrils 
from  the  pine  covered  hills  beyond  the 
garden  filled  with  roses  and  lilies. 

The  wailing  young  man  watched  him, 
open-eyed,  as  he  skimmed  the  first  hundred 
feet  of  the  castle  wall.  The  cells  talked  hap 
pily  together  for  a  minute,  calling  to  their 
ally,  the  lungs,  to  keep  the  matter  well  in 
hand,  and  shouting  down  to  the  heart  not  to 
put  the  ignorant  young  fellow  into  the  dis 
graceful  plight  of  falling  in  love  with  the  girl 
of  a  man  for  whom  he  was  doing  a  service. 

The  heart  responded  that  he  did  not  under 
stand  such  autocratic  language;  that  if  Bio 
cletes  was  ever  to  be  the  man  they  were 
talking  about  making  him,  he  must  grow  out 
of  his  moony  ways.  He  must  know  that, 
though  he  had  a  head,  he  had  a  heart  as  well ; 


44  WHERE  THE  SUN  SHINES 

especially,  must  he  know  how  to  cooperate 
with  both.  He  continued  by  saying  that  he 
considered  the  citizens  of  the  city  of  wits,  as 
they  called  themselves,  every  whit  as  dicta 
torial  as  he,  himself,  had  ever  been  in  his 
most  excited  and  emotional  moments.  He 
said,  that,  if  they  had  only  suggested,  he  had 
only  thrown  photographs  on  the  screen  of 
the  boy's  mind  —  or  what  was  going  to  be 
his  mind,  when  their  city  was  all  built  up  and 
the  inhabitants  named,  Attraction,  Choice, 
Determination,  Patience,  and  so  forth.  It 
would  be  well  to  call  on  another  citizen  and 
name  him,  Discrimination,  who  might  show 
them  what  he,  the  heart,  knew,  the  minute  he 
heard  the  voice  of  the  yew  hedge  man — that 
it  would  be  no  false  faith  in  Biocletes  if  the 
fine  little  fellow  should  fall  in  love  with  the 
princess.  The  town  of  wits  needed  a  little 
heart  warming.  For  his  part,  he  had  known, 
at  once,  that  the  yew  hedge  man  was  a 
scoundrel.  So  much  for  feeling  versus  logic. 
As  for  logic,  logic  ought  to  teach  them  that 
no  man  who  stood  and  howled  under  a  maid 
en's  window  was  good  enough  for  her  — 
whether  she  be  princess  or  peasant.  He  was 
disgusted  with  the  whole  lot  of  caucus  callers 
up  there  in  that  skull.  He,  personally  knew, 
too,  that  no  earth  man  ever  lived  who  did 
not  have  a  heart  and  a  well  developed  one  at 
that.  The  quicker  Biocletes'  heart  was  de 
veloped,  the  sooner  he  could  take  his  part  as 
a  man  of  the  earth,  among  men!" 


WHERE  THE  SUN  SHINES  45 

The  heart  was  interrupted  in  this  diatribe 
by  a  scream  from  the  water  sprite. 

"Come  back !"  she  called  in  a  fury,  "Come 
back!" 

"A  little  later,"  Biocletes  telephoned 
through  a  transmitter  made  of  one  hand, 
while,  cavalierly,  he  held  on  to  a  tendril  with 
the  other.  "It  won't  take  long!" 

In  this,  Biocletes  was  greatly  mistaken. 
The  undertaking  was  to  be  neither  short  nor 
easy. 

As  he  turned  from  the  sprite  to  continue 
his  ascent,  he  heard  her  voice  still  screaming 
up  to  him. 

"Indeed,  you'll  not  come  back  'a  little 
later !'  Deserting  me  for  an  earth  girl,  indeed. 
No  sir !  If  you  want  to  fall  in  love  with  her, 
you  need  not  depend  on  me  any  more,  to 
nurse  you,  you  big  moon  baby !" 

"I  couldn't  fall  in  love  with  the  girl  of  an 
other  man,  even  if  I  did!"  Biocletes  was 
somewhat  ambiguous  as  to  his  English,  but 
wholly  comprehending  as  to  his  own  mean 
ing.  "That  wouldn't  seem  nice  to  me  if  I 
could  help  it,  and  if  I  couldn't  help  it,  it  would 
seem  worse!" 

"I've  a  mind  to  come  after  you!"  The 
sprite  was  proving  herself  a  perfect  little 
vixen. 

The  wailing  young  man  caught  hold  of  her 
arm  and  told  her  she  hadn't  any  mind,  and  to 
hush!  Amelia's  grandmother  looked  out  of 
the  window  and  told  Amelia  that  the  night 


46  WHERE  THE  SUN  SHINES 

was  growing  damp  and  the  wind  was  rising: 
also,  that  she  should  advise  her  son,  the  king, 
to  have  the  frog  pond  cleared  of  frogs.  She 
could  not  sleep,  the  frogs  croaked  so. 

The  sprite  heard  the  words.  They  made 
her  more  furious  still.  Everybody  knows 
that  frogs  have  perfectly  awful  voices  and 
that  her  voice  was  perfectly  lovely. 

The  wailing  young  man  stopped  watching 
the  ascent  of  Biocletes  toward  Amelia's  win 
dow,  and  looked  more  particularly  at  the 
sprite. 

"Of  course,  everybody  knows  you  have  a 
lovely  voice,"  he  said,  reassuringly. 

The  sprite  glared  at  him. 

"I  don't  want  any  love  making  from  you 
earth  men,"  she  said  freezingly,  "You  are 
nothing  in  the  world  but  money  worshippers. 
If  I  should  marry  you,  the  honeymoon 
wouldn't  be  over  before  you  would  bottle  me 
up  to  furnish  water  power  for  a  factory.  No 
sir,  not  you!  Nor  you,  either!"  calling  after 
the  climbing  Biocletes,  "I  had  intended  ask 
ing  you  to  marry  me  because  moonbeams 
and  the  mist  can  work  together  very  well.  I 
have  some  sense,  if  I  am  volatile.  But  I  won't 
ask  you  now,  no  I  won't !" 

"Come  my  good  woman,  don't  make  such  a 
row!"  The  dejected  lover  was  changing  his 
tactics. 

To  be  called  a  good  woman  was  too  much 
for  the  unhappy  sprite.  She  burst  into  tears 
and  disappeared  in  raindrops. 


CHAPTER  VII 

"That  was  a  more  fortunate  solution  to 
the  difficulty  than  I  could  have  hoped." 

So,  Biocletes  to  himself.  Then  he  and  the 
wailing  young  man  and  Biocletes'  cells  and 
lungs  and  heart  gave  themselves  up  to  the 
marvelous  acrobatic  performance  of  the 
scaling  of  the  castle  walls,  even  to  the  win 
dows  of  the  princess  Amelia  in  the  turret. 

Oh,  but  it  was  a  pretty  sight !  All  seemed 
to  be  going  beautifully  when  there  flew  into 
the  castle  garden,  a  terrible  gust  of  wind. 
Clouds  concealed  the  searchlights  in  the 
kingdom  of  the  king,  Hypocrates  Socrates 
Moon,  who,  though  he  did  not  know  it,  had 
been  helping  his  son  to  find  his  foothold, — 
so  often  does  the  father  light  help  us  in  the 
dark,  when  we  know  nothing  of  it. 

Biocletes,  himself,  ceased  to  glitter.  When 
he  stopped  glittering,  he  could  not  see  where 
to  put  his  foot  to  climb  a  single  step  higher. 

The  wind  shook  and  swayed  him  upon  his 
precarious  fothold.  It  seemed  certain  that 
he  would  be  shaken  that  terrible  stretch  of 
space  through  the  air,  to  the  ground. 

He  seemed  unable  to  walk  off  into  that 
great  expanse  as  he  had  done  when  first  he 
left  his  resting  place  in  the  tree  and  began 
his  voyage  into  the  world  of  atmosphere  — 
that  wonderful  voyage  which  had  led  him 


48  WHERE  THE  SUN  SHINES 

to  the  water  sprite  and  to  his  subsequent 
journey  hither,  to  the  rescue  of  a  maiden  he 
knew  would  be  beautiful. 

Her  picture,  as  presented  to  him  by  his 
heart,  made  that  organ  go  bumpity-bump 
more  than  it  had  ever  done  —  far  more,  even, 
than  when  he  first  saw  the  water  sprite. 

How  black  and  cold  it  grew!  The  leaves 
Biocletes  was  clinging  to,  were  torn  from 
their  stems  and  flung  ruthlessly  to  the 
ground  or  into  the  air,  to  meet  their  fate. 
Rain  pelted  down  upon  him  and  drenched 
him  so  that  he  began  to  be  very  heavy  — 
almost  too  heavy  to  keep  his  footing  on  the 
perilous  ladder  of  practically  nothing. 

The  cells  of  the  town  of  wits  called  out 
to  the  lungs  to  put  on  more  power,  and  told 
the  heart  that  if  he  had  any  of  that  quality, 
called  compassion,  usually  attributed  to  him, 
please,  please  to  stop  going  bumpity-bump 
while  Biocletes  was  hanging  to  life  by  so 
precarious  a  thread. 

Still  the  wind  blustered  and  roared;  the 
rain  poured  in  sheets.  Biocletes  clung  des 
perately  to  the  slippery  wall,  banged  and 
beaten  by  the  elements.  The  wailing  young 
man  grew  tired  of  being  drenched.  He  de 
cided  that  he  would  not  wait  for  Biocletes  to 
die  up  there  in  the  air,  or  stop  to  help  him  on  • 
of  his  sad  plight.  If  the  silly  moonfellow  did 
not  get  the  letter  to  Amelia,  he  did  not  want 
to  speak  to  him  again.  As  for  what  was  hap 
pening  up  there, — it  served  the  fluttery  thing 


WHERE  THE  SUN  SHINES  49 

right  for  having  no  better  sense  than  to  do  a 
favor  for  somebody  he  did  not  know.  If  Bio- 
cletes  did  get  the  letter  to  Amelia,  the  lover 
would  find  her  at  three  o'clock  the  next 
morning,  sliding  down  a  silken  cord  into  his 
arms.  If  not  —  well,  he'd  better  go!  There 
were  reasons,  too,  which  made  it  better  for 
his  health  —  so  the  slangy  fellow  stated  the 
fact  to  himself  —  to  be  out  of  the  garden  and 
beyond  the  reach  of  the  castle  guards.  So 
the  wailing  young  man  went  away. 

Left  alone  in  the  garden,  buffetting  with 
the  elements,  Biocletes  held  his  own  on  the 
wall  or  on  the  ivy  leaves,  one  or  the  other, 
as  he  was  flung  ruthlessly  about.  He  could 
have  slipped  to  the  ground  and  run  away  like 
the  cad  he  saw  disappearing  beyond  the  yew 
tree  hedge;  but  he  scorned  retreat.  He  was 
determined,  too,  to  see  the  princess  who 
could  make  a  man  cry.  People  very  seldom 
cried  in  the  moon.  The  phenomenon  puzzled 
and  interested  him. 

He  was  too  unsophisticated  to  judge  of  the 
qmlity  of  the  yew  hedge  man's  tears.  He 
knew  only  they  were  something  out  of  the 
usual  to  him.  The  tears  seemed  to  be  warm, 
gushing  things.  Things  in  the  moon,  were, 
quite  generally,  what  he  was  now  learning 
from  his  earth  experiences,  to  call  clammy. 
He  wanted  to  see  how  much  beauty  it  took  in 
a  woman  to  make  an  earth  man  cry.  He  won 
dered  if  the  earth  men  always  stayed  down  in 
gardens  and  got  other  people  to  do  their 


50  WHERE  THE  SUN  SHINES 

climbing,  then  went  off  and  left  them  in  the 
lurch  if  anything  interfered  with  the  swift 
completion  of  their  plans.  He  wondered  if 
the  yew  hedge  man  really  loved  the  princess 
with  every  bit  of  him.  Somehow,  though  he, 
Biocletes,  had  not  much  experience,  it  did 
not  seem  to  him,  that  he  did.  He  wondered 
if  such  luke-warmness  as  desertion  on  the 
part  of  the  yew  hedge  man  would  raise  the 
ban  of  disloyalty  and  permit  the  winner  to 
love  the  lady  of  the  run-a-way's  heart  —  or 
whatever  it  was  that  did  the  loving. 

Biocletes  had  some  time  to  puzzle  about  all 
this,  because  he  had  to  crouch,  for  a  long 
while,  close  to  the  wall.  There,  no  wind  could 
get  behind  him  to  wedge  him  from  his  foot 
fall  into  the  rain,  where  he  would  surely  be 
washed  away. 

After  a  while,  the  wind  stopped  blowing  so 
furiously.  The  rain  slackened  until  only  a 
few  drops  fell  here  and  there.  Then  the 
clouds  put  horses  to  their  chariots  and  raced 
away;  and  there,  trying  to  reveal  and  un 
cover  the  whole  round  world  to  find  the  boy 
who  had  been  sent  away  from  home  in  a 
most  unfatherly  rage,  were  the  searchlights 
of  the  king,  Hypocrates  Socrates  Moon.  As 
once  before,  the  father  was  helping  the  boy 
when  he  did  not  know  that  he  was  doing  it 
and  the  son  did  not  know  it  either. 

It  was  such  a  help!  Biocletes  shook  him 
self.  He  found  he  was  a  wee  bit  heavier.  The 
exercise  of  so  much  grit  in  holding  on  to  a 


WHERE  THE  SUN  SHINES  51 

difficult  proposition,  had  given  him  the  be 
ginnings  of  something  that  always  has  much 
weight  in  earth  life.  It  is  called  character. 
He  had  to  pick  and  choose  his  steps  more 
carefully.  He  was  finding  that  each  step 
counted  for  good  or  ill  in  a  fashion  such  as 
he  had  never  before  noticed.  If  he  took  a 
misstep  now  —  he  had  to  work  harder  —  so 
it  seemed  to  him, —  to  retrieve  to  his  satis 
faction.  That  was  a  bother;  but,  somehow, 
it  made  him  have  a  feeling  of  self  respect. 

Though  this  was  all  indefinite  in  his  mind, 
his  feeling  led  him  truly  to  a  sense  of  stab 
ility  as  in  contradistinction  to  the  unstability 
of  the  water  sprite  who  could  not  see  a  kindly 
action  done  to  another  without  getting  into 
a  most  undignified  rage  over  it. 

He  did  not  want  to  turn  fickle  himself, 
though,  and  desert  the  water  sprite  because 
he  did  not  like  all  she  did.  She  had  really 
been  very  kind  and  had  shown  anything  but 
lack  of  stability  in  her  attraction  toward 
him.  He  felt  in  her,  even  what  she  had  not 
openly  shown  to  him.  As  for  himself,  it  was 
not  just  what  he  liked  to  believe  of  himself, 
that  he  could  turn  from  the  kindly  water 
sprite  without  a  better  reason  than  that 
something  else  was  awakening  his  attention. 

Did  you  think  —  so  he  communed  with 
himself  as  he  began  his  climb  again  —  should 
you  think  it  was  dreadful  to  fall  in  love  with 
another  man's  girl  ?  Pshaw !  That  man  down 
there,  was  a  coward.  It  would  be  doing  any 


52  WHERE  THE  SUN  SHINES 

girl  a  favor  to  get  her  out  of  the  clutches  of 
such  a  man.  She  should  be  told  that  the 
fellow  had  stood  there  at  the  foot  of  the 
turret  and  cried,  and  then  had  gotten  some 
one  else  to  do  his  work  and  had  run  away 
and  left  that  someone  in  the  lurch. 

Biocletes  was  so  indignant  as  he  thought  of 
all  this,  that  he  almost  lost  his  balance.  Then 
it  occurred  to  him  that  if  he  wanted  to  make 
a  success  of  getting  to  the  princess,  he  must 
apply  himself  to  the  task  and  stop  thinking 
of  other  matters  till  that  was  accomplished. 

The  moment  he  stopped  thinking  about  the 
wailing  young  man  and  stopped  wondering 
and  puzzling,  and  took  care  of  his  steps,  he 
was  surprised  to  see  how  quickly  he  reached 
the  window  in  the  turret  behind  which  were 
his  hopes  and  the  realization  of  his  dreams. 

True,  there  was  the  awful  possibility  that 
the  Princess  Amelia  might  have  closed  the 
window  during  the  storm,  so  that  he  could 
not  enter.  That  fear,  however,  halted  him 
but  a  moment. 

"I  can  shine  through  the  pane  so  very 
brightly  that  she  will  be  attracted  to  the 
window.  When  she  has  come  so  far,  I  can 
shine  some  more.  Then  she  can  not  resist 
opening  the  window,  and  I  will  enter." 

He  edged  round  to  one  side  of  the  win 
dow  so  that  the  direct  rays  of  his  light  would 
not,  at  once,  meet  her  eye.  He  was  somewhat 
modest  about  peeping  into  a  lady's  chamber 
without  being  announced. 


WHERE  THE  SUN  SHINES  53 

When  he  gained  the  courage  to  look  in, 
what  he  saw  there,  nearly  took  his  breath 
away.  He  almost  fell  off  the  ivy  leaf  on 
which  he  was  poising,  in  his  endeavors  to  see 
without  being  seen. 

The  Princess  Amelia  sat  in  the  half  light, 
such  an  exquisite  sadness  on  her  face  that 
the  prince's  heart  began  a  bumpity-bump 
that  nearly  jarred  him  off  the  window  sill 
where  he  had  gained  a  purchase. 

The  earth  people  would  say  that  he  lost 
his  heart  that  minute.  You  and  I  know  he 
found  it. 

For  some  reason,  the  cells  of  the  town  of 
wits  did  not  seem  as  inclined  as  usual,  to 
scold  and  jeer  at  the  heart  down  under  the 
ribs,  at  once  so  tremulous  and  so  strong,  and 
called  so  vigorously  into  action  by  the  beauty 
and  charm  embodied  in  the  gracious  person 
of  the  Princess  Amelia. 

When  the  cells  did  stir  a  little,  it  was  for 
one  of  them  to  say: 

"It  is  most  fortunate  that  his  incipient 
attraction  on  the  earth  plane  should  be  for 
so  rare  and  beautiful  a  specimen  in  every 
regard,  as  this  Princess  Amelia." 

Aquiver  with  delight  at  the  beauty  of  the 
girl  he  saw  and  trembling  with  the  wonder 
of  it,  Prince  Biocletes  leaned  further  and 
further  forward,  to  watch  her  every  move 
ment  and  expression. 

What  was  she  like?  Never  the  same  any 
two  times  he  peeped  at  her.  The  water  sprite 


54  WHERE  THE  SUN  SHINES 

had  silvery  hair  and  a  complexion  like  the 
white  dew  of  the  morning  as  it  lies  over  the 
fields  in  the  early  day.  Biocletes  had  thought 
her  very  lovely  in  her  ethereal  beauty;  but 
there  was  a  reality  in  the  charm  of  this  earth 
born  princess  that  made  him  feel  strong, 
more  closely  knit  together,  if  you  understand 
what  I  mean.  The  water  sprite  gave  him  a 
feeling  that  she  might  melt  away  any 
moment  and  take  him  with  her.  As  he  looked 
at  the  Princess  Amelia,  he  felt  less  like  melt 
ing  away  than  getting  together  something 
he  could  really  call  himself,  to  present  to  her, 
heart  and  brain,  body  and  soul. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

Biocletes  did  not  express  these  thoughts 
all  to  himself  exactly  after  the  fashion  herein 
set  down.  The  citizens  of  wits,  however, 
had  it  all  formulated,  pretty  much  after  this 
manner. 

The  heart,  quivering  with  delicious  tremor 
at  the  wonderful  presence  before  him,  ap 
plied  himself,  indiscretely,  and  wholly  unin 
tentionally,  to  nearly  bumping  Biocletes  off 
the  sill. 

Fortunately,  this  tremor  made  him  grip, 
with  a  still  more  determined  tenacity,  his 
foothold,  as  well  as  the  thought  that  was 
taking  deep  root  in  his  mind,  that  he  was 
going  to  enter  suit  for  the  heart  of  the  prin 
cess  and  let  the  recalcitrant  lover  stay  down 
in  the  yew  hedge  where  his  own  choice  had 
placed  him.  The  coward  had  done  worse 
than  that.  He  had  run  away!  Left  Biocletes 
to  his  fate,  intending  to  return  and  capture 
the  prize  Biocletes  had  won  for  him,  when  at 
three  the  next  morning  she  should  slide  down 
a  silken  cord  into  the  unworthy  recreant's 
arms. 

How,  thought  Biocletes,  could  he  save  her 
from  such  a  fate! 

How  does  she  really  look!  He  continued 
to  think. 


56  WHERE  THE  SUN  SHINES 

"She  is  different  every  time  I  glance  at  her 
with  a  new  heart  thump.  She  responds  to  my 
every  ideal !" 

As  he  gazed  earnestly  at  the  princess,  this 
moment,  she  had  the  most  wonderful  golden 
hair  and  marvelous  blue  eyes.  The  faintest 
flush  of  a  seashell  was  on  her  smooth  fair 
cheek.  She  was  graceful  in  every  movement. 
Her  feet  were  daintiness  itself  in  their  little 
gold  slippers,  and  her  hands  were  prettier, 
far,  than  the  lilies  he  had  seen  in  the  castle 
gardens. 

As  he  continued  to  gaze,  he  could  not  help 
wondering  how  she  would  seem  if  she  were 
otherwise. 

In  response  to  the  thought,  her  eyes  grew 
as  black  as  onyx;  her  golden  hair  fell  from 
its  coils  in  strands  of  midnight  black.  With 
forceful  movement,  her  athletic  hands  coiled 
it  quickly  again  above  a  low  brow  of  ivory 
pallor.  A  strong  foot  tossed  aside  the  golden 
slipper  and  thrust  itself  into  a  moccasin  san 
dal. 

Biocletes  was  astonished  at  the  change. 

"I  like  her  better  as  I  saw  her  first,"  he 
sighed. 

As  he  spoke,  there  was  the  dainty  Amelia 
with  her  golden  hair  and  her  witching  charm. 

"How  strange,"  pondered  Biocletes.  "Do 
people  look  as  they  look  or  as  the  one  who 
looks  at  them  thinks  of  them !  If  that  is  the 
case,  I  shall  be  changing  with  every  whim  of 
fancy  and  that  will  make  her  change  or  seem 


WHERE  THE  SUN  SHINES  57 

to  change.  That  will  not  be  fair  to  her  nor 
very  easy  for  me.  She  would  never  know 
where  to  find  herself.  As  for  me,  I  should 
grow  so  interested  in  changing  my  mind  I 
should  never  stick  to  one  idea  or  accomplish 
anything.  You  have  to  stick  to  things,  I  see, 
to  get  anywhere,  and  not  go  sliding  about 
like  a  moonbeam.  Where  would  I  have  been 
if  I  had  not  stuck  to  my  ladder  and  if  I  had 
died  like  a  moonbeam  when  the  clouds  tried 
to  kill  me!  Down  in  the  list  of  cowards 
with  that  yew  hedge  man !  If  I  am  going  to 
be  in  love  with  her,  I  must  see  what  I  love 
in  her  and  stick  to  it." 

The  citizens  of  wits  had  such  a  joy  meet 
ing  over  this  reverie  of  Biocletes,  that  the 
boy's  head  felt  all  wuzzly. 

"Good,"  said  one,  "If  he  gets  stick-to-a- 
tive-ness  settled  in  him  and  a  better  back 
bone  I  believe  he  will  soon  pass  the  authori 
ties  of  earthdom  as  a  full-fledged  earth  man." 

"Many  earth  men  have  neither,"  said  an 
other  cell. 

"Then  they  are  not  men;  they  are  some 
things  !  We  want  to  present  a  candidate  that 
the  earth  will  have  place  and  space  for.  We 
all  know  that  it  has  enough  of  the  other  kind. 
Watch  the  lad!" 

The  lad,  of  course  referred  to  Biocletes. 
He  was  leaning  so  far  forward,  was  being 
drawn  so  insistently  by  her  charm  into  the 
presence  of  the  princess,  that,  even  as  the 
cell  spoke,  he  edged  himself  through  a  crack 


58  WHERE  THE  SUN  SHINES 

in  the  window  and  found  himself  precipitated 
at  her  very  feet. 

"Beautiful  Princess—" 

"What  an  exquisite  bit  of  jewelry!"  The 
princess  sprang  to  her  feet  and  seized  him 
as  if  he  had  been  a  breastpin.  Before  he  could 
utter  a  word  to  protect  himself,  she  thrust 
him  into  a  jewel  casket  near  by,  and  returned 
to  her  reverie,  too  full  of  heart  sorrow  to  be 
beguiled  into  more  than  a  cursory  glance  at 
the  trinket. 

Prince  Biocletes  was  amazed.  He  had  not 
realized  before,  that  he  was  so  much  smaller 
than  the  earth  people.  It  came  over  him  with 
crushing  force,  that,  unless  he  could  grow, 
it  was  of  no  avail  to  reveal  himself  to  the 
princess  and  avow  his  love  for  her.  It  would 
only  make  him  the  butt  of  her  ridicule.  He 
had  not  minded  the  ridicule  of  the  water 
sprite ;  but  he  felt  it  would  be  more  than  he 
could  endure  to  hear  contemptuous  or  pat 
ronizing  words  directed  toward  himself  from 
those  lips  that,  already,  he  adored.  In  all 
honor,  he  should  try  to  deliver  to  her  the 
letter  from  the  wailing  young  man  whom  he 
had  left  running  away  from  the  yew  tree 
hedge.  Then  he  must  try  to  grow  before  she 
slid  down  the  silken  cord  at  three  in  the 
morning.  Could  he  grow  by  that  time?  He 
meant  to  try,  even  if  it  did  seem  like  hurry 
ing  matters.  How,  honorably,  he  could  re 
ceive  into  his  arms,  a  princess  meant  for  an 
other,  he  did  not  know.  Somehow,  he  felt 


WHERE  THE  SUN  SHINES  59 

that  would  be  arranged  for  him.  His  heart 
told  him  to  have  hope.  The  head  of  the  clan 
of  wits,  named  Reason,  seemed  rather  more 
willing  than  usual,  to  cooperate  with  the 
heart  in  this  matter.  A  warm  flow  of  some 
thing  reason  called  resourcefulness,  and  the 
heart  telephoned  was  rightfully  named  hope, 
flowed  through  the  little  Prince  Biocletes 
shut  up  in  the  jewel  casket.  It  made  him  ex 
pand  so  that  the  hinges  of  the  box  were  put 
to  a  great  strain  to  keep  their  prisoner  within 
bounds  and  not  burst  in  the  attempt. 

Biocletes  heard  the  strain  but  did  not  real 
ize  the  cause.  He  felt,  though,  that  some 
more  of  the  same  thing — he  did  not  know 
what  —  might  make  the  hinges  creak  again. 
He  made  it  very  sure  to  himself,  that 
he  had  the  power,  within  himself,  to  weaken 
those  bars  of  imprisonment,  even  though  he 
could  not,  at  once,  trace  the  means.  The 
thought  made  him  expand  again.  Again,  the 
hinges  creaked.  He  continued  to  think.  That 
was  a  new  process  to  him.  Of  course,  notions 
even  ideas,  had  popped  in  and  out  and  at 
tracted  his  attention  for  the  moment;  but  he 
had  never  definitely  set  himself  to  work  any 
thing  out  from  inception  —  and  back  of  in 
ception  —  to  realization.  He  had  just  done 
undetached  things,  with  no  thought  what 
ever,  about  what  the  thing  done  would  lead 
to,  or  what  it  had  led  from. 

This  time,  however,  he  began  deliberately 
to  plan  how  he  was  to  get  out  of  his  jail  and 


60  WHERE  THE  SUN  SHINES 

grow  big  enough  to  face  the  princess  as  a 
suitor  for  her  hand  —  big  enough  in  every 
sense,  he  meant  —  and  how  he  was  to  ar 
range  matters  so  that,  honorably,  he  could 
receive  to  his  own  heart  and  keeping,  a  wo 
man  whose  expectations  were  that  she  was 
to  fall  into  the  arms  of  another  man.  That 
that  other  was  a  coward,  was  not,  after  all, 
full  and  sufficient  reason  for  making  the 
change  if  the  princess  preferred  the  other 
man.  She  had  something  to  say  about  the 
matter.  Something!  All!  It  was  not  enough 
for  him  to  know  what  he  wanted.  He  must 
know  what  she  wanted,  as  well. 

As  he  reasoned  thus  in  his  tiny  prison,  the 
clan  of  wits  condescended  to  rejoice  with 
the  heart,  at  this  new  indication  of  growth 
and  the  lungs  drew  such  a  deep  breath  of 
content  at  this  exhibition  of  consideration, 
that  the  hinges  of  the  casket  absolutely 
parted. 

Biocletes  saw  this.  He  gave  a  great  sigh 
of.  relief  at  the  sense  of  his  approaching 
relief.  The  hinges  of  the  casket  sank  into 
place  again. 

This  return  to  imprisonment  when  he  had 
seen  release  before  him,  was  very  disappoint 
ing  to  Biocletes.  He  had  not  yet  learned  to 
trace  events  to  causes.  He  was  determined 
to  observe,  with  the  intention  that  the  next 
time  the  hinges  parted  he  would  discover  the 
cause.  Then  he  settled  himself  to  plan. 

He  saw  that  if  the  princess  was  to  slide 


WHERE  THE  SUN  SHINES  61 

down  the  silken  cord  into  the  garden, 
she  must  know  she  was  expected  to  do  so. 
She  must  receive  the  billet,  as  the  wailing 
young  man  called  the  note.  It  hurt  Biocletes 
even  to  let  the  princess  know  there  was  such 
a  lollypop  of  a  man  who  expected  to  receive 
her  in  his  arms.  After  all,  that  was  but  one 
step.  He  would  have  time  to  watch  the  effect 
of  the  note.  Meanwhile,  he  might  think  up  a 
way  to  grow,  so  as  to  be  equal  to  the  emer 
gency  he  hoped  to  face  at  three  the  next 
morning.  Then  the  wailing  young  man 
would  have  to  stand  the  test  of  presenting 
himself  before  the  princess,  a  leaner  on  the 
efforts  of  others,  for  the  attainment  of  cher 
ished  ends. 

"If  I  read  her  right,  it  will  disgust  her 
when  she  knows  he  can't  do  his  own  climb 
ing.  She  is  too  noble  a  looking  woman,  truly 
to  love  a  weakling.  How  very  very  strong  I 
must  become  in  purpose  and  in  action,  to 
win  her.  How  very  much  I  have  to  do." 


CHAPTER  IX 

It  did  occur  to  Biocletes,  that,  after  all,  as 
the  wailing  young  man  was  not  a  moonbeam, 
and  had  not  a  climbing  makeup,  he  had  been 
smart  in  the  selection  of  one  who  had.  He 
put  that  aside  as  a  very  small  item  in  the 
meagre  list  of  the  yew  hedge  man's  virtues, 
though  he  realized  it  was  wise  to  g<*t 
helpers  of  the  right  sort  for  the  accomplish 
ment  of  a  given  object.  He  did  not  believe, 
that,  in  the  eyes  of  a  true  woman,  that  would 
do  much  toward  balancing  the  other  side  of 
the  ledger  which  contained  the  abhorrent 
item  that  a  man  who  couldn't  win  his  own 
lady  love,  was  going  to  marry  her. 

"To  run  away,  too!"  exploded  Biocletes, 
with  such  indignation  that  he  drew  a  deep 
breath  and  the  hinges  of  the  casket  parted 
again. 

"It  is  because  I  make  myself  bigger  down 
between  my  waist  and  my  throat,"  said  Bio 
cletes,  and,  exultantly,  he  drew  such  a  very 
deep  breath,  that  the  hinges  of  the  casket 
were  strained  so  far  apart,  they  fell  out  of 
position  and  could  not  get  together  again,  so 
there  was  a  good  sized  crack  all  along  the 
back  of  the  box. 

Hastily,  Biocletes  threw  the  yew  hedge 
man's  note  through  this  crack  made  by  the 


WHERE  THE  SUN  SHINES  63 

parted  hinges.  So  accurate  was  his  aim,  that 
the  bit  of  paper  fell  at  the  very  feet  of  the 
princess. 

The  princess  started  from  her  meditations 
and  caught  up  the  little  billet. 

Eagerly,  Biocletes  watched  her.  He 
clenched  his  fists  tightly  and  brought  to 
gether  his  jaws  with  a  grip  of  determination 
to  do  something,  whatever  that  something 
might  be.  , 

"Isn't  there  anything  in  the  world  that 
will  show  my  beautiful  princess  the  worth- 
lessness  of  that  fellow!"  between  white  set 
lips.  "Must  she  find  it  out  for  herself  when 
it  is  too  late!  Isn't  there  something  or 
somebody  to  take  care  of  beautiful  people 
and  make  them  find  out  rascals  before 
the  villains  can  do  them  harm!  If  there 
is,  please,  O  you  Something  or  Somebody, 
speak  to  my  beautiful,  beautiful  princess  and 
show  her  the  truth!  I  don't  mean  that  you 
are  to  do  it  only  because  I  love  her  and  want 
her  myself;  but  because  I  want  her  to  have 
the  sweetest  of  everything,  and  to  know 
what  she  is  going  into,  and  whether  she  truly 
wants  it  or  only  fancies  she  does." 

"See  here,"  said  the  head  of  the  clan  of 
wits,  "This  fellow  of  ours  is  growing  prettv 
fast.  We  shall  have  him  an  earth  man  of 
first  class  stuff,  in  short  order." 

"Better  than  an  earth  man,  I  say,"  whis 
pered  another  cell,  "He  is  learning  about  the 


64  WHERE  THE  SUN  SHINES 

'Something  That  Is  Behind.'  That  is  more 
than  many  earth  people  know." 

"I  think  it  rather  fine  of  him,  as  he  is  still 
only  a  moonbeam,  and  not  supposed  to  know 
anything  about  a  moral  sense,  not  to  run  and 
tell  her;  but  to  leave  it  to  her  judgment," 
said  another  cell. 

Meanwhile,  the  princess,  who,  at  first,  had 
kissed  the  billet  and  pressed  it  to  her  heart, 
was  reading  and  rereading  it,  while  a  puzzled 
look  was  creeping  into  her  beautiful  eyes, 
and  a  sad  little  shadow,  that  had  been  chased 
away  by  the  advent  of  the  note,  was  return 
ing,  with  an  ever  darkening  shade, 

"I  wonder  —  I  wonder  — "  she  was  saying 
sadly,  "Somehow,  the  words  don't  ring  true." 

She  read  aloud: 

"Come  to  me  tomorrow  night,  at  three. 
Slide  down  the  silken  cord  you  have  told  me 
about.  Be  sure  to  leave  someone  behind 
whom  you  can  trust  to  untie  it.  We  will 
want  to  take  it  away  with  us  for  our  future 
protection." 

She  looked  anxiously  at  the  window. 

"Are  you  there?"  she  whispered.  Of  course, 
no  one  answered. 

It  was  all  that  Biocletes  could  do  to  refrain 
from  calling,  "He  is  not  there,  Princess.  He 
stayed  down  by  the  yew  tree  hedge,  crying, 
till  he  saw  me  and  got  me  to  come  up  here 
for  him.  When  it  began  to  rain,  he  ran  away 
and  left  me  to  the  mercy  of  a  possible  defeat, 


WHERE  THE  SUN  SHINES  65 

which,  fortunately,  I  have  made  success.  No! 
No,  I  mustn't  say  that!"  He  clenched  his 
jaws  the  tighter,  lest  he  speak  against  his 
will  and  according  to  his  wish.  That  would 
be  to  be  a  boaster  and  a  tattle-tale!  I  must 
not  be  either  to  be  worthy  of  my  princess." 

"Nor  of  yourself!"  A  new  voice  spoke  to 
the  little  prince  shut  up  in  the  jewel  box, 
within  it,  the  growing  soul  of  a  man-life, 
waiting  for  release  from  a  chrysalis. 

The  new  voice  made  him  feel  sure  and  very 
safe.  It  made  him  feel  that  Something  was 
caring  for  the  beautiful  princess,  waking  her 
to  take  cognizance  of  all  the  circumstances 
in  this  strange  series  of  incidents. 

"Something  leads  me  to  feel  that  I  should 
be  careful."  Thus,  the  princess  to  herself. 
Then  cautiously, 

"Are  you  there?  There,  outside  my  win 
dow,  waiting  for  me  to  bid  you  enter?" 

Of  course  there  was  no  answer.  A  tear 
found  its  way  down  her  lovely  cheek. 

"He  could  not  climb  so  far  and  so  high! 
He  tells  me  it  is  my  duty  to  leave  all  I  have 
grown  to  love,  all  that  is  part  of  my  very  self, 
and  go  with  him,  to  save  those  for  whom  he 
is  giving  his  life.  He  tells  me  that  he  loves 
me!  He  tells  me  so!  Why  should  I  doubt? 
How  did  he  send  me  this  note?  Perhaps  by  a 
rocket.  I  did  see  a  flash  of  light  at  the  win 
dow,  a  moment  ago.  He  must  have  sent  me, 
as  a  gift,  that  brooch  I  so  heedlessly  tossed 


66  WHERE  THE  SUN  SHINES 

into  the  casket.  Why  such  earnestness  about 
my  taking  with  me,  the  silken  cord?  Does  he 
want  me  for  more  than  myself? — for  my 
sources  of  protection?  For  his  own  gain, 
rather  than  for  the  love  of  myself  or  of 
others?  In  this  note,  there  is  something  that 
cuts  my  heart.  I  fear  him!  I  do  not  know 
why!  But  his  will  leads  me!  I  must  go!" 


CHAPTER  X 

Then  Biocletes  knew  that  he  must  work 
fast  and  hard.  How  could  he  save  the  beauti 
ful  princess !  First  of  all,  he  must  get  out, 
where  he  could  act !  Second — this  was  far 
from  his  wish;  but  wholly  with  his  judgment 
—  he  must  not  speak  to  her.  He  knew, 
now,  that  he  was  tiny,  too  inconsequental 
in  appearance  and  in  expression,  to  win  her 
confidence.  He  must  work  for  her  without 
letting  her  know  anything  about  it.  He 
must  be  on  hand  —  that  was  it,  on  hand! 
For  what?  For  anything  that  was  needed 
of  him,  just  as  he  had  been  on  hand  to 
bear  to  her  the  letter,  which,  now,  alas, 
was  bringing  grief  to  her  heart  and  doubt 
to  her  mind.  Doubt  and  grief!  He,  who 
loved  her  so,  had  brought  her  both!  He 
sighed.  Then,  realizing  that  if  he  were  to 
prove  of  any  assistance  to  her,  he  must  keep 
up  his  courage,  he  drew  in  so  full  a  breath, 
that  the  cover  and  box  were  strained  still 
further  apart,  Biocletes  slipped  quickly 
through  the  opening  and  was  free  once  more, 
unaware  that  he  was  carrying  away  with 
him,  the  princess'  largest  diamond,  which  she 
used  in  playing  ball  with  her  kitten. 

"What  a  beautiful  moonbeam,"  he  heard 
her  exclaim,  as  he  lighted  on  an  ivy  leaf,  pre- 


68  WHERE  THE  SUN  SHINES 

paratory  to  escape.  "I  can  not  send  him  an 
answer  in  any  other  way.  Moonbeam,  will 
you  tell  him,  that,  at  three,  tomorrow  morn 
ing,  I  will  slide  down  the  silken  cord  and 
flee  with  him  to  the  ends  of  the  earth,  if  so 
he  bid  me!  Tell  him,  O  Moonbeam,  to  be  true 
to  me  and  give  me  no  cause  to  doubt  him. 
For  his  sake,  am  I  forsaking  father  and 
mother,  and  into  his  hands  do  I  confide  the. 
keeping  of  my  happiness,  yea,  my  very  soul." 

Biocletes  was  so  affected  by  these  words 
of  the  princess,  that,  knowing  he  must  not 
speak,  nor  advise,  nor,  indeed,  express  him 
self  in  any  way,  all  he  saw  to  do  was  to 
hasten  down  the  vines  as  quickly  as  possible, 
far,  far  away  from  her  whom  he  loved  with 
the  fervor  of  his  very  life.  To  go — where? 
He  was  all  alone,  without  friend  or  compa 
nion,  leaving  the  presence  of  the  only  one  he 
loved,  feeling  assured,  too,  that  he  was  leav 
ing  her  in  the  jaws  of  some  terrible  danger; 
desirous  of  protecting  her  from  the  yew 
hedge  man  without  any  means  for  doing  so. 
It  was  a  most  perplexing  situation. 

He  reached  the  ground.  All  was  still  and 
sweet  and  peaceful.  There  was  no  hint  of  the 
tragedy  those  lilies  and  roses  would  see  to 
morrow  night,  and  that  the  yew  hedge  would 
conceal  from  those  within  the  castle  walls, 
who  loved  the  Princess  Amelia. 

Having  reached  the  ground,  Biocletes 
found  himself  very  exhausted,  more  as  the 
effect  of  his  emotions  than  of  hi?  exertions. 


WHERE  THE  SUN  SHINES  69 

So,  weary,  and,  oh,  so  very  lonesome,  he 
crept  into  the  heart  of  a  rose  and  fell  asleep. 

So  tired  was  he,  that  for  long,  long  hours, 
he  slept.  At  last,  he  stirred,  drowsily,  and 
drew  up  the  covering  of  rose  leaves,  for  a 
strange  damp  was  disturbing  him.  He  tried 
to  snuggle  down  among  his  sweet  scented 
blankets  for  another  nap.  Disquietude  con 
tinued  to  possess  him.  He  decided  that  he 
would  be  better  able  to  think  if  he  got  up. 

Just  as  he  was  emerging  from  the  fragrant 
couch  that  had  so  contributed  to  his  comfort, 
he  heard  a  slight  stir  in  the  garden,  in  the 
vicinity  of  the  yew  tree  hedge  and  near  his 
quondam  resting  place.  Cautiously,  he 
moved  in  the  direction  of  the  sound,  wisely 
keeping  well  within  cover  of  the  shrubbery, 
till  he  could  locate  the  disturbance.  He  found 
the  yew  hedge  lover  talking  in  whispers,  to 
three  unsavory  looking  men.  When  he  saw 
Biocletes,  he  scowled. 

"Good  heavens,  what  are  you  doing  here ! 
I  had  forgotten  it  was  full  moon." 

This  remark  was  accompanied  by  an  un 
complimentary  anathema  on  his  own  stupid 
ity. 

"There  is  one  thing  in  our  favor,  the  castle 
people  will  have  relaxed  their  vigilance.  They 
will  never  believe  that  a  man  with  a  grain  of 
sense  would  choose  the  night  of  a  full  moon 
to  carry  out  an  abduction  scheme." 

"Perhaps  you  haven't  a  grain  of  sense." 
Biocletes  whispered  to  himself.  The  yew 


70  WHERE  THE  SUN  SHINES 

hedge  man  must  have  heard  him — or  was  it 
the  echo  of  his  own  thoughts  he  heard, — he 
turned  quickly. 

"Keep  out  of  my  way,"  he  growled,  as  Bio- 
cletes  approched  him,  bravely  issuing  from 
the  protection  of  the  shrubbery,  "For 
heavens'  sake,  keep  out  of  my  way." 

"I  helped  you  last  night,"  Biocletes  was 
very  ingratiating  in  his  manner,  "Let  me 
into  your  plans.  Perhaps  you  will  be  sur 
prised  to  see  how  well  I  can  enter  into  them." 

One  of  the  cells  among  the  citizens  of 
wits  gave  a  little  chuckle  of  amusement. 

"Good!  He  is  getting  there!" 

"Where?"  growled  Reason,  discontently. 

"To  manhood.  Did  you  hear  that,  Diplo 
macy?" 

"I  heard  that  approach  to  trickery.  I  don't 
like  it.  I  was  in  hopes  we  could  prepare  one 
earth  man  without  those  two  abominable 
traits — trickery  and  caution." 

"Why,  caution  is  one  of  your  closest  rela 
tions.  Not  deceit;  but  caution.  Why  shouldn't 
he  be  cautious,  dealing  with  those  villains?" 

"Because,  within  himself,  he  has  the  qual 
ity  of  defense  against  them.  What  can  they 
do  to  him?  They  can  not  stop  his  shining, 
and  you  know  it.  Only  his  Source  can  do 
that.  You  know  that  men  like  those  fellows, 
brave  as  they  may  be  in  perpetrating  vil 
lainies  are  afraid  when  it  comes  to  dealing 
with  The  Source." 

"You  can't  and  you  mustn't  expect  to  send 


WHERE  THE  SUN  SHINES  71 

out  a  finished  product  into  the  world.  If  you 
did,  there  would  be  nothing  left  for  the  earth 
to  do  for  him.  Besides,  a  finished  product 
would  be  too  good  to  be  true,  and  he  would 
not  fit  into  the  scheme  of  earth.  It  is  a  long 
way  to  perfection,  by  the  earth  road." 

Reason  turned  away  impatiently.  He  was 
anxious  to  hear  what  Biocletes  and  the  yew 
hedge  man  were  saying. 

"Hang  round  out  of  sight,  there,  till  after 
the  princess  gets  down  here.  Don't  go  away. 
Since  you  are  willing,  I  think  you  may  be 
able  to  help  us  after  we  get  her.  As  we  run 
one  way  with  her,  you  might  run  in  the  other 
direction  and  impersonate  her,  so  the  pur 
suers  will  follow  you  instead  of  us." 

"A  fine  idea."  Biocletes  seemed  most  im 
pressed  with  the  guile  of  the  yew  hedge  man. 
"I  will  stop  here  in  the  shrubbery  and  wait 
for  signals." 

"Liar !"  growled  Reason.  Saying  one  thing 
and  standing  on  an  entirely  different  plat 
form." 

"I  don't  agree,"  said  Diplomacy,  "It  would 
be  murder  to  show  one's  hand  prematurely." 

"Can  he  not  trust  his  Source?" 

"Be  reasonable,  Reason,  don't  you  know 
he  has  not  grown  enough,  yet,  to  realize  he 
has  a  Source.  He  has  to  learn  the  best  means 
to  an  end,  I  repeat,  Reason,  do  be  reasonable. 
They  who  know  Truth,  must  become  ac 
quainted  with  him,  through  the  Master  of 
Ceremonies,  Experience." 


72  WHERE  THE  SUN  SHINES 

"Don't  talk  so  much!"  growled  Reason, 
"You  ball  up  ideas  with  words  so  there  is  no 
sense  to  what  has  sense." 

"You'd  better  stop  talking  yourself,  Rea 
son,"  quarrelled  Diplomacy.  "You  are  balling 
up  your  ideas  most  woefully,  with  your 
logic." 

The  attention  of  all  concerned  in  the 
making  of  Biocletes  into  an  earth  man  was 
now  attracted  by  a  stir  in  the  garden.  A 
little  tremor  of  excitement  quivered  through 
the  whole  line  of  ivy  leaves  from  the  window 
of  the  Princess  Amelia's  room  unto  the  very 
earth,  as  a  slender  cord,  almost  of  the  texture 
of  a  spider's  web,  floated  down,  over  and 
through  the  leaves,  until  it  touched  the 
ground. 

The  yew  hedge  man  was  filled  with  sup 
pressed  excitement.  From  being  a  weak, 
wailing  young  man  such  as  Biocletes  had 
seen  the  night  before,  there  seemed  to  shoot 
from  his  being,  a  diabolic  force.  As  he  saw 
Amelia  hesitate  as  if  to  return,  as  she  poised 
on  the  window  ledge  of  the  turret,  far,  far 
up  toward  the  starry  heavens,  the  vengeful 
spark  of  diabolic  force  seemed  to  shoot  from 
the  man  to  the  very  centre  of  the  being  of 
the  Princess  Amelia.  As  one  moving  against 
her  will,  she  began,  slowly  but  surely,  to 
descend. 

"If  I  could  get  that  cord  intact,  the  girl 
could  stay  at  the  other  end,  for  all  I  care." 

Biocletes  heard  the  words.  His  fists,  which 


WHERE  THE  SUN  SHINES  73 

had  done  a  good  deal  of  clenching  since  he 
first  saw  the  princess,  clenched  again  and 
almost  let  fly  at  the  jaw  of  the  yew  hedge 
man.  But  he  restrained  himself. 

"Patience!"  he  whispered  to  himself. 

There  was  a  still  more  excited  stir  among 
the  ivy  leaves  at  the  top  of  the  turret.  The 
watchers  in  the  garden  below,  viewed  the 
perilous  descent.  Biocletes  clasped  his  hands 
and  grit  his  jaws  in  his  desire  to  aid.  Once, 
he  rushed  out  of  the  shrubbery,  in  order  to 
throw  more  light  upon  her  path.  The  gruff 
whisper  of  the  yew  hedge  man  sent  him  back 
precipitously. 

"Don't  you  know  better,  you  fool  moon 
beam!  You  will  frighten  her.  She  will  think 
the  light  you  will  throw  on  her  will  reveal 
her  to  the  guards.  Let  her  come  down  in  the 
dark.  She  will  have  enough  of  it  for  the  rest 
of  her  life." 

Biocletes'  blood  boiled.  Yes,  he  could  feel 
it.  It  was  some  sort  of  a  substance  that  had 
been  forming  ever  since  he  had  fallen  in  love 
with  an  earth-born  maiden.  He  did  not  feel 
so  light  as  before;  but  he  felt  braver,  more 
solid,  more  real.  He  slipped  back  into  the 
shrubbery  and  anxiously  followed  the  de 
scent  of  the  woman  he  loved  into  the  arms  of 
the  man  he  had  learned  to  abhor  and  detest. 

The  yew  hedge  lover  gave  the  princess  so 
cursory  a  greeting  when,  at  length,  she 
reached  the  ground,  that  Biocletes  fairly 
raged  within  himself. 


74  WHERE  THE  SUN  SHINES 

"Is  someone  undoing  the  cord?" 

"No,"  quivered  Amelia,  frightened  by  the 
strange  manner  of  her  lover,  "There  was  no 
one  I  could  trust.  My  mother  has  slept  in  my 
chamber  ever  since  they  discovered  our  first 
attempt—" 

"Here  you!"  Rudely,  the  yew  hedge  man 
summoned  Biocletes.  "Come  out  of  the 
shrubbery  and  run  up  there  and  untie  the 
cord,  and  drop  it  down  to  us.  Quick,  now!" 

Biocletes  fairly  flew  up  the  ivy  vines  to 
the  window  of  Amelia's  room.  Even  with  the 
added  weight  of  his  coming  earth  life,  he  was 
still  fleet  and  light.  Up  he  sped,  with  so  many 
plans  teeming  in  his  brain,  that  they  almost 
overbalanced  him.  This  time  it  was  his  heart 
that  whispered,  "Faint  heart  ne'er  won  fair 
lady." 

This  remark  sounded  new  and  very  won 
derful  to  Biocletes,  for,  not  being  earth-born, 
he  had  never  before  heard  that  trite  but  true 
remark.  He  steadied  himself  at  once,  with 
the  result  that  he  reached  the  chamber  of 
the  lady  Amelia  in  the  full  brilliance  of  his 
powers.  He  shone  so  brightly  that  he 
illumined  the  apartment,  which  otherwise, 
would  have  been  in  darkness. 

He  paid  no  attention  to  the  silken  cord — 
not  he !  He  went  directly  to  the  bedside  of  the 
mother  —  a  woman  as  beautiful  as  her 
daughter,  with  much  wisdom  illumining  her 
splendid  face. 

Biocletes  stood  very  still  at  the  bedside, 


WHERE  THE  SUN  SHINES  75 

focussing  all  the  light  of  his  knowledge  upon 
her  mind,  through  the  intense  light  of  his 
being.  Soon  the  mother  stirred  and  opened 
her  eyes. 

"What  a  brilliant  moonlight  night!"  she 
exclaimed,  "It  makes  it  difficult  for  me  to 
rest." 

She  tried  to  shade  her  eyes  with  her  hand; 
but  the  determined  Biocletes  got  behind  it 
and  shone  so  persistently  that  the  mother 
rose  and  crossed  the  room  to  shut  out  the 
moonlight  by  drawing  the  draperies  of  the 
window. 

Of  course,  she  saw  the  silken  cord  depend 
ing  from  the  sill,  looked  at  Amelia's  couch 
and  read  the  whole  terrible  history  in  a  flash. 


CHAPTER  XI 

The  queen  mother  was  wise.  She  did  not 
scream.  Quietly,  she  roused  the  sleeping 
king,  who  notified  the  guards  to  enclose  the 
garden  as  silently  and  as  quickly  as  possible 
and  not  attempt  to  seize  the  party  of  marau 
ders  directly  under  the  window. 

Biocletes  had  felt  that  the  yew  hedge  man 
would  be  disturbed  at  the  length  of  time  he 
was  taking  to  execute  his  commission  and 
would  not  wait  for  him.  So  very  much  did  he 
wish  to  inform  the  king  and  queen  of  this 
impression  that  he  shone  and  shone  and 
shone  his  intense  desire  to  express  himself. 
Because  he  felt  so  deeply  and  keenly,  he  en 
abled  the  father  and  mother,  as  they  leaned 
cautiously  from  the  window,  to  see  that  the 
men  had  already  left  the  vicinity  of  the  castle 
and  were  forging  ahead  into  the  forest  be 
yond. 

So  anxious  was  Biocletes  to  keep  the  vil 
lains  within  his  ken,  that  he  fairly  flew  down 
the  ivy  into  the  garden,  illumining  every 
nook  and  cranny  of  the  Way  the  men  were 
passing.  He  ran  through  the  garden  till  never 
before  had  it  been  so  flooded  with  light.  He 
ran  into  the  forest,  sending  gleam  and  glow 
under  leaf  and  shrub  and  into  dark  woodland 
paths.  He  could  hear  the  yew  hedge  man  in 
the  distance  cursing  the  moonlight  and 
urging  on  the  horses,  though,  as  yet,  without 


WHERE  THE  SUN  SHINES  77 

realizing  that  pursuit  had  already  begun. 

On  flew  Biocletes  till  he  fairly  surrounded 
the  marauding  party.  Just  as  they  crossed  a 
space  of  lovely  parking,  the  other  side  of  the 
hill,  the  castle  guards,  guided  by  the  faithful 
Biocletes  came  down  upon  them  from  the 
front.  All  the  evil  doers  were  captured,  ex 
cept  the  yew  hedge  man  who,  putting  spurs 
to  his  horse,  rode  wildly  out  of  sight. 

In  a  moment,  Amelia  was  in  her  father's 
arms. 

"Father!  Father!"  she  whispered,  "Hold 
me  fast!  I  do  not  know  why  or  how  I  ever 
did  it.  I  seemed  compelled  to  it  against  my 
will,  until  it  seemed  to  become  my  own  wish 
and  will.  The  moonlight  was  fairly  inspired 
to  help  me !  It  flooded  every  corner  of  valley 
and  wood.  Wherever  those  terrible  men  hid, 
there  would  the  moonlight  shine  the  bright 
est.  It  was  to  save  me,  Father,  to  save  me!" 

The  father  was  a  wise  and  loving  man,  not 
cold  and  cruel.  He  held  his  daughter  closely 
within  his  arms  and  kissed  her  many  times. 
Then  the  cavalcade  turned  homeward.  Bio 
cletes  clung  to  the  company  until  they 
reached  the  very  doors  of  the  castle.  The 
king,  the  queen  and  Amelia  entered  and  the 
doors  were  closed;  the  guards  dispersed  and 
Biocletes  Socrates  Moon  was  left  all  alone 
in  the  spaces  of  the  darkling  woods. 

Then  it  was  that  despair  overtook  him.  He 
who  had  wondered  how  much  beauty  it  took 
in  a  woman  to  make  an  earth  man  cry,  fell 


78  WHERE  THE  SUN  SHINES 

face  down  upon  the  green  sward  and  drank 
of  the  dregs  of  loneliness  and  desolation.  Bit 
ter  tears  took  from  him  the  gleam  and  glow 
that  had  enabled  him  to  do  so  great  good 
and  to  armor  himself  from  harm.  He  felt 
that  disaster  was  about  to  come  upon  him.  A 
great  weight  of  impending  evil  overwhelmed 
him.  He  began  to  pity  himself  that  he  was 
so  different  from  the  princess — so  very  dif 
ferent  that  there  was  absolutely  no  use  in 
aspiring  to  her  love.  The  more  he  felt  that 
way,  the  dimmer  he  grew,  less  and  less  filled 
with  the  vital  glow  of  the  moonlight  that  had 
so  valiantly  aided  the  king  father  in  the  re 
covery  and  salvation  from  a  sad  and  miser 
able  fate,  of  his  only  child. 

He  rose  from  the  spot  where  he  had 
thrown  himself  in  his  desperation.  A  band  of 
marauders  beheld  the  gleaming  of  his  dress 
and  ran  toward  him  in  search  of  booty.  Then 
Biocletes,  the  brave,  the  doughty,  grew 
afraid!  He  forgot  that  they  could  not  seize 
him  and  denude  him  of  the  light  which  was 
inseparable  from  him.  In  a  frenzy  of  terror, 
he  fled  over  the  blades  of  grass,  hiding  be 
neath  them,  now,  in  cowardly  fashion,  now, 
leaping  upon  and  over  them.  He  climbed 
upon  shrubs  and  trees,  and  ran  from  leaf  to 
leaf  for  his  very  life. 

The  race  grew  more  and  more  exciting. 

"There  he  is,  Shadow,"  cried  one  pursuer, 
ascending  a  tree,  and  trying  to  oust  Biocletes 
from  his  high  position. 


WHERE  THE  SUN  SHINES  79 

"Catch  him,  Darkness,"  called  another. 

So  on  they  ran — a  horde  of  belligerents, 
chasing  the  tired,  disconsolate  little  prince 
until  they  came  to  the  surface  of  a  large  lake. 
There,  the  pursuers  could  not  reach  him. 
They  gathered  about  the  shores,  however, 
ready  to  seize  him,  should  he  advance  within 
their  grasp. 

"How  desolate  I  am!"  thought  the  poor 
little  fellow,  quivering  and  glancing  upon  the 
small  undulations  of  the  water,  weary  and 
sick  at  heart,  "Where  shall  I  go,  and  what 
shall  I  do?" 

The  shadows  were  very  still  and  watchful 
for  some  time;  then  they  gathered  together 
seemingly  in  parley.  A  few  hasty  words  and 
an  appearance  of  great  agitation,  and  they 
slowly  and  silently  retreated. 

"Now  for  a  little  rest  and  a  little  peace,  for 
I  am  very  tired,"  thought  Biocletes ;  but  sud 
denly,  to  his  horror,  he  heard  a  great  outcry, 
that,  to  his  weary  brain,  sounded  like  trum 
pets  of  war,  though,  really,  they  were  birds 
singing  their  matin  sings.  Over  the  east, 
there  flashed  a  terrible  light.  The  glare  be 
came  more  intense  and  distracting.  Biocletes, 
who,  all  his  life,  had  lived  in  light  but  had 
thought  and  known  nothing  of  his  own  gift, 
was  terrified  almost  beyond  the  power  of 
motion.  At  last,  he  pulled  himself  together, 
and  madly  fled. 

A  great  army  was  behind  him.  He  had  no 
recourse  but  to  flee, 


80  WHERE  THE  SUN  SHINES 

"It  is  not  cowardice  like  that  of  the  yew 
hedge  man,"  he  quivered,  heart  broken,  to 
himself,  "It  is  because  the  odds  are  against 
me.  I  must  flee,  in  order  to  live." 

On  he  ran,  the  great  army  following,  and 
gaining,  momentarily,  upon  him.  They 
chased  him  from  the  great  surface  of  the 
lake;  from  every  leaf  and  blade  of  grass  he 
chose  as  vantage  ground,  until  he  was  ready 
to  drop  with  fatigue.  They  shot  great  shin 
ing  lances  at  him,  that  wounded  him  many 
times. 

Still  he  struggled  on,  reaching,  at  length, 
the  cool,  green  forest  made  of  the  large  bou 
quets  he  had  seen  when  first  he  had  rescued 
himself  from  the  dark,  deep  waters  and  its 
dreadful  inhabitants. 

He  sank  exhausted  on  the  brink  of  a 
stream.  He  dipped  his  hand  into  the  water 
to  allay  his  faintness,  and  found  himself  face 
to  face  with  the  water  sprite. 

"You  have  had  a  hard  time  since  you  de 
serted  me,  haven't  you?"  she  said  spitefully. 

"Yes,  yes,"  panted  Biocletes. 

"I  slapped  you  well  in  the  face  for  that 
desertion!  Did  you  know  that  all  those  rain 
drops  that  nearly  washed  you  off  the  vines 
on  your  way  to  that  Amelia  person's  rooms, 
were  cufnngs  and  slaps  from  me?" 

"No.  How  could  you  do  such  a  thing  when 
you  had  been  so  nice  to  me  and  I  meant  no 
harm  to  you?" 

"You  left  me!   That  hurt  my  feelings!  It 


WHERE  THE  SUN  SHINES  81 

always  harms  one  to  hurt  other  people's  feel- 
ings." 

"But  you  can't  keep  from  doing  what  is 
right  because  it  is  going  to  hurt  someone's 
feelings !  People  should  not  let  their  feelings 
be  hurt  over  what  is  done  to  them  that  is 
right!" 

"You  moralize  too  much  for  your  health, 
Moonbeam!  Suppose  you  marry  me!  I'll  take 
care  of  you  and  keep  you  out  of  trouble.  I'll 
show  you  how  to  hide  and  how  to  strike  from 
the  dark,  the  way  I  did  when  I  slapped  your 
face" 

"I  thank  you  for  the  honor  conferred  upon 
me."  The  prince  was  almost  amusing,  de 
spite  the  tragedy  of  the  situation,  in  the 
stiltedness  of  his  old-fashioned  courtesy,  the 
regret  he  felt  at  giving  pain,  and  the  inte 
grity  of  his  purpose  to  escape,  in  no  under 
hand  manner  from  what  life  had  set  before 
him. 

As  Biocletes  spoke,  the  water  sprite  turned 
and  saw  the  outriders  of  the  great  army  ad 
vancing  upon  them.  She  grew  pale  with  ter 
ror. 

"Oh !"  she  shrieked,  "It  is  the  army  of  the 
sun." 

"Who  is  he?"  Biocletes  was  terrified,  but 
still  alert  to  learn. 

"He  is  what  made  you  and  me,  and  kills 
us  both  whenever  he  wishes." 

"What  is  it  to  kill?"  Biocletes  demanded 


82  WHERE  THE  SUN  SHINES 

an  answer,  even  though  the  tyrant  were  at 
his  very  heart  and  brain. 

"You'll  find  that  out  soon  enough!  That 
army  is  deadly  enemy  to  the  moonlight  and 
the  mist.  I  am  dying,  now.  There  is  but  one 
escape  for  us  both!" 

Just  then,  the  sun  came  into  view  in  his 
flaming  chariot. 

"Come!  Come!"  gasped  the  water  sprite. 

"I  will  run  no  more!  I  will  hide  no  more! 
If  the  sun  made  me,  he  will  not,  cannot,  kill 
me,  for  I  must  be  part  of  his  very  self.  I  must 
receive  my  very  light  from  him.  If  he  quench 
it,  it  is  only  to  absorb  his  light  again  unto 
himself.  I  will  not  run.  I  will  face  him.  I  will 
stand." 

But  the  water  sprite  had  disappeared. 


PART  II 

CHAPTER  XII 

t 

With  a  little  touch  of  sadness  upon  his 
noble  face,  the  sun  dismounted  and  the  glory 
of  him  spread  over  field  and  sky. 

He  stood  and  conversed  with  his  courtiers 
on  the  spot  where  the  water  sprite  had  dis 
appeared,  and  the  moonbeam  awaited  the 
reading  of  his  fate. 

"Timid  ones,"  he  said  gravely,  "Why  do 
they  flee  from  me?  Do  they  not  know  that  I, 
who  have  charge  of  their  comings  and  goings 
can  summon  them  at  any  moment  at  the  call 
of  my  Leader,  who  is  greater  than  I!  Let 
the  water  sprite  go  for  the  while.  She  is 
always  disappearing,  mad  with  terror,  and 
bobbing  up  before  me  in  a  summer  cloud  or 
a  morning  mist  and  laughing  in  my  face.  As 
for  this  moonbeam,  I  would  speak  with  him. 
He  has  proven  himself  so  full  of  the  meat  of 
achievement  I  must  provide  means  for  his 
advancement.  He  must  enter  the  earth  life. 
Let  him  sleep  now.  We  must  approach  him 
gently.  He  has  suffered.  When  we  have  suf 
fered,  we  must  be  left  in  peace  and  quietness 
until  we  come  again  to  our  own.  Let  him 
sleep  long.  Later,  I  will  talk  with  him." 

All  day  Biocletes  slept,  a  deep  deep  sleep. 


84  WHERE  THE  SUN  SHINES 

When  he  awoke,  it  was  well  into  the  morn 
ing  of  the  next  day. 

His  first  thought  was  of  the  Princess  Am 
elia;  his  second  was  a  feeling  of  shame  that, 
even  for  a  moment,  he  had  run  away  from 
anything. 

"It  was  a  foolish  thing  to  do!  One  can't 
really  run  away  from  anything.  If  the  sun 
could  kill  me  it  would  be  far  better  that  I 
fall  into  his  power,  facing  him." 

"Good  morning,  young  sir."  It  was  a  plea 
sant  voice  that  accosted  him.  "How  is  it  you 
have  spent  the  night  in  the  forest  when  the 
city  is  so  near?" 

Biocletes  looked  up.  He  saw  a  large  man 
with  a  noble  face. 

"I  have  nowhere  else  to  go,  sir,"  Biocletes 
rose  to  his  feet  and  stood  confidingly  beside 
the  stranger.  "I  feel  that  I  can  tell  you  that 
I  am  not  an  inhabitant  of  the  earth.  I  am  a 
moonbeam.  My  father  shut  me  out  from  his 
kingdom."  His  lip  quivered  a  little.  "You  see, 
I  had  an  adventurous  spirit.  I  wanted  to 
learn  something  beyond  my  sphere.  Was  that 
wise,  sir,  or  very  wrong?" 

"We  do  not  know  the  limits  of  our  spheres 
until  we  have  reached  them,  and  that  is, 
never.  I  think  you  are  a  child  of  earth,  now, 
at  all  events,  a  student  of  the  earth.  You 
shall  if  you  wish,  come  with  me  to  the  town 
whose  roofs  and  steeples  you  see  in  the  light 
of  the  morning  sun.  There  I  will  introduce 
you  to  those  who  will  acquaint  you  with 


WHERE  THE  SUN  SHINES  85 

the  life  you  will  see  about  you.  It  is  for  you 
to  use  that  life  as  you  will." 

In  perfect  trust,  Biocletes  listened  to  the 
stranger.  As  they  moved  away  together,  he 
halted  and  looked  down  at  himself.  He  found 
that  he  was  dressed  in  a  suit  of  modish 
tweeds.  A  portmanteau  was  on  the  ground 
where  he  had  lain.  It  contained  his  suit  of 
shining  armor,  his  gold  and  jewels,  and, 
above  all,  the  diamond  with  which  the  Lady 
Amelia  had  been  used  to  play  with  her  kit 
ten. 

"May  I  not  shine  any  more,  sir,  in  this  city 
of  the  earth?" 

"More  than  ever,  but  with  a  different 
shine." 

"First  of  all,  I  must  find  the  earth  maiden, 
the  Princess  Amelia,  to  restore  to  her  the 
diamond  that,  unintentionally,  I  took  from 
her  possession,  one  night  when  I  saved  her 
from  a  dreadful  fate." 

"Let  us  walk  to  town.  It  is  a  pleasant 
stroll." 

Biocletes  moved  on  beside  the  noble  look 
ing  man,  his  portmanteau  in  his  hand. 
Though  it  was  heavy  with  jewels  and  gold, 
he  bore  its  weight  with  ease.  Presently,  he 
began  to  laugh. 

"I  have  to  laugh  at  this  manner  of  moving. 
It  is  that  of  the  snail  compared  with  my  mo 
tion  of  yesterday.  May  I  no  longer  float  and 
swim  and  skim  and  stir  and  do  all  the  things 
I  used  to  do?" 


86  WHERE  THE  SUN  SHINES 

"Do  anything  you  want  to.  Ask  something 
inside  you  what  you  may  or  may  not  do." 

"As  I  see  those  about  me  are  walking,  per 
haps  I  would  better  walk.  I  want  to  be  a 
real  man  before  I  meet  the  Princess  Amelia 
and  that  must  be  very  soon,  for  I  should  re 
store  to  her  her  diamond  ball  at  once." 

"Where  do  you  expect  to  find  her?" 

"I  do  not  know.  In  the  castle,  I  suppose. 
I  do  not  know  that  they  would  let  her  give 
audience  to  a  stranger,  especially  after  the 
danger  that  has  threatened  her.  They  will 
never  know  that  it  is  I  who  saved  her,  and 
that,  even  then  I  had  the  heart  of  a  man  in 
side  the  embodiment  of  a  moonbeam." 

"I  may  not  tell  you  how  or  where  to  find 
the  Lady  Amelia.  I  only  feel  you  will  find  her 
if  you  care  enough  for  her  to  be  patient  and 
to  work  with  life.  The  first  thing  for  us  to 
do  is  to  find  you  a  place  on  this  earth  plane. 
We  all  work  here,  you  know." 

"What  can  I  do?" 

"That,  you  must  find  out  for  yourself.  You 
have  some  money,  or  what  can  be  turned  into 
money.  You  can  live  like  a  very  rich  man,  if 
you  want  to." 

Biocletes  looked  troubled.  Seeing  this,  the 
sun  changed  the  subject.  The  walk  to  the 
city  was  accomplished,  not  in  conjecture;  but 
in  simple  comradeship. 

The  two  went  to  a  hotel.  In  the  course  of 
the  morning,  the  appointed  protector  invited 


WHERE  THE  SUN  SHINES  87 

a  coterie  of  friends  to  a  dining.  There  he  in 
troduced  Biocletes. 

"You  can  still  call  yourself  Biocletes, 
though,  if  I  were  you,  I  would  drop  the  name, 
Socrates.  That  old  fellow  was  too  dirty  in 
his  habits.  Besides,  he  was  a  street  loafer. 
Civilization  is  trying  to  do  away  with  street 
philosophy,  and  introduce  the  philosophy  of 
work.  That  is  the  slogan  of  this  generation. 
Monarchies  are  toppling  every  day.  It  is 
doubtful,  indeed  if,  in  a  very  short  time,  it 
will  be  of  any  use  for  you  to  seek  for  your 
Amelia  in  a  castle." 

He  smiled  in  a  kindly  fashion,  for  Biocletes 
had  told  him  of  the  incidents  of  his  earth  life, 
preceding  his  appearance  as  a  real  man. 

"I  cannot  say  that  you  are  a  real  man,  yet." 
This,  in  response  to  Biocletes'  use  of  the 
word.  "You  will  have  to  prove  whether  or 
not  you  are  a  real  man.  Shape,  you  know,  is 
but  a  small  part  of  a  real  man.  As  work  is 
the  slogan  of  the  life  of  today,  what  should 
you  like  to  be?" 

"I  know  nothing  of  its  occupations.  I 
should  like  to  be  placed  so  that  I  can  see  the 
goings  and  comings  of  great  and  small,  poor 
and  rich,  high  and  low." 

"We  will  ask  our  guests  at  dinner,  to  take 
a  vote  as  to  what  position  in  life  will  best 
give  you  such  advantages." 

The  question  was  presented.  The  universal 
decision  was  that  no  place  so  fully  filled  the 


88  WHERE  THE  SUN  SHINES 

demand  as  that  of  policeman  on  Grab-and- 
Get-Some  Square. 

"This  square  is  in  the  centre  of  the  city, 
with  streets,  like  spokes  of  a  wheel,  ex 
tending  in  every  direction.  From  it,  can  be 
reached  the  slums  and  the  castle  where  lives 
the  king.  It  is  a  most  desirable  institution 
of  learning,  better  far,  for  your  purpose, 
than  colleges  and  universities." 

"You  speak  of  universities.  I  am  not  as 
well  educated  as  I  should  be,  in  the  curri 
culum  of  the  earth.  I  misunderstand  words, 
as  these  are  used.  For  instance.  I  had  thought 
that  law  and  justice  should  convey  the  same 
idea.  I  find  they  do  not.  I  need  to  go  to  a 
university  to  learn  such  differences." 

"There  is  no  university  for  that,  like  Grab- 
and-Get-Some  Square,  and  no  scholarship 
equal  to  that  of  being  a  policeman."  All 
joined  in  the  merriment. 

"Our  young  friend  is  not  large  enough. 
The  policemen  on  Grab-and-Get-Some 
Square  have  to  be  large,"  said  Mr.  See-It- 
All-At-a-Glance,  "What  shall  we  do  about 
that  for  our  new  citizen?" 

"Shall  I  suggest?"  said  a  kindly  man  at 
the  head  of  the  table. 

"Do  so,"  said  the  others. 

"Let  him  apply  consciously  to  his  training 
the  principles  the  flowers  unconsciously 
apply  to  theirs.  In  the  woods  and  forests  let 
him  glean  all  possible  knowledge.  How  does 
the  tree  grow?  It  strikes  down  and  up  and 


WHERE  THE  SUN  SHINES  89 

round  and  about  according  as  the  power 
within  finds  aid  and  stimulus." 

"Good!  If  not  nurtured  on  all  sides  its 
growth  is  unsymmetrical." 

"Abnormality  results  from  unbalanced  as 
similation  with  surroundings." 

"So,  will  he  realize  that  upon  the  quality 
of  what  is  absorbed  depends  the  quality  of 
what  is  enfibred  in  the  man.  He  will  find  his 
mind  reasoning,  his  heart  pondering,  his  de 
sire  growing,  his  discrimination  selecting, 
his  will  acting,  his  whole  self  affiliating  with 
life  in  all  its  phases.  Nor  may  he  esteem  it  a 
virtue  to  cramp  or  limit  himself.  To  do  so 
is  to  inhibit  power  for  service.  It  is  a  crime." 

"And  I,  if  I  be  lifted  up  from  the  earth, 
will  draw  all  men  unto  me,"  quoted  one  guest 
thoughtfully. 

"He  may  listen  patiently  to  the  opinions  of 
others,  measuring  standards,  balancing  med 
itation  and  action.  When  he  speaks  he  will 
choose  his  words  as  they  were  picked  soldiers 
for  a  legion.  Thus  shall  he,  with  the  fulness 
of  joy  go  into  the  woods,  the  fields.  He  shall, 
with  more  than  his  old-time  moonbeam  skill, 
climb  trees,  skate  upon  ice-covered  lakes,  sail 
upon  the  seas,  run  over  mountains,  shine 
through  clouds,  mount  even  farther  than  the 
moon,  that  he  may  know  what  all  are  think 
ing  and  how  each  came  by  his  mode  of 
thought." 

"The  moon?'  'said  Biocletes,  delightedly. 

"The  moon,  boy,  and  far,  farther,  still." 


90  WHERE  THE  SUN  SHINES 

"And  I  may  climb  and  run  and  skim  the 
walls  covered  with  ivy  leaves?" 

"Indeed,  and  more,  and  in  more  subtle 
ways." 

"And  the  first  step  to  this,  is — to  be  a 
policeman?" 

"No.  The  first  step  to  being  a  policeman, 
is  this." 

"You  are  putting  before  me  a  life  time  of 
preparation.  How  shall  I  ever  attain  to  the 
position  in  Grab-and-Get-Some  Square?" 

"If  you  will  follow  my  instructions,  faith 
fully,  young  Biocletes,  beginning  with  them 
in  their  simplest  form,  under  tutors  I  will 
suggest,  I  can  assure  you  that  very  soon  you 
will  be  appointed  to  a  position  as  policeman 
in  Grab-and-Get-Some  Square." 


CHAPTER  XIII 

I  am  not  going  to  tell  you  how  long  it  took 
Biocletes  to  prepare  to  become  a  policeman. 
To  some  of  you  who  read,  the  time  would 
seem  ridiculously  short,  to  others,  ridiculous 
ly  long.  At  all  events,  one  day  found  him  on 
Grab-and-Get-Some  Square,  in  the  uniform 
of  the  king,  well  equipped  to  serve  him. 

Though  no  longer  a  moonbeam,  he  re 
tained  valuable  qualities  from  his  former 
state,  among  them,  that  of  being  so  self- 
effacive  that  he  was  practically  invisible 
when  he  so  elected,  though  at  other  times  he 
could  be  notably  prominent. 

The  first  morning  of  his  service  as  he  stood 
in  the  most  conspicuous  part  of  the  square, 
in  his  granite  gray  uniform,  he  seemed  a  very 
part  of  the  obelisk  near  which  he  was  placed. 

The  day  was  passing.  Biocletes  had  seen 
many  amusing,  as  well  as  heart  rending 
sights ;  but  none  that  had  especially  required 
his  attention.  He  was  not  a  traffic  policeman 
and  did  not  even  have  to  direct  the  constant 
whirl  of  teams  and  equipages  that  thronged 
the  square,  making  it,  at  times,  well  nigh  im 
passible.  He  stood  there,  a  common  man  in  a 
common  mart. 

Still  as  the  granite  near  him,  he  stood,  at 
tentive  to  all  that  moved  before  and  behind 


92  WHERE  THE  SUN  SHINES 

and  beside  him,  as  well.  He  had  attained  the 
quality,  also,  of  extending  himself  beyond 
himself — if  you  understand  what  I  mean. 

The  roar  of  the  city  came  to  a  sudden  lull, 
as  is  sometimes  the  case. 

Floating  out  above  the  silence,  like  the 
obligate  of  a  choral  symphony,  there  came  to 
his  attentiveness,  the  words,  "The  Silken 
Cord." 

That  voice!   The  Silken  Cord! 

At  that  moment,  into  the  further  side  of 
the  square,  there  came  a  victoria,  drawn  by 
the  king's  bays.  Seated  in  the  carriage — the 
policeman  could  scarcely  see  her  through  the 
blur  that  came  into  his  eyes — was  the  Prin 
cess  Amelia. 

There  was  no  reason  he  should  think  that 
the  love  of  his  moonbeam  and  his  manhood 
dreams  was  in  danger.  She  was  well  guarded. 

Nevertheless,  he  leaped  from  his  station 
near  the  granite  obelisk  and  sprang  into  the 
seat  beside  her,  just  as,  seemingly  out  of  no 
where,  the  yew  hedge  man  appeared  at  the 
other  side  of  the  vehicle  on  a  stallion  of 
Arabian  blood.  As  Biocletes,  with  the  rapid 
ity  of  a  moonbeam  and  the  altertness  of  a 
man  lilted  her  from  her  seat,  placed  her  on 
the  other  side  of  the  carriage  and,  himself, 
dropped  into  the  spot  left  vacant  by  the 
change,  the  yew  hedge  man,  with  herculean 
strength  seized  him  and  fled  wildly  with  him, 
out  of  sight. 

So  necessary  was  it  that  the  yew  hedge 


WHERE  THE  SUN  SHINES  93 

man  guide  and  govern  his  steed  through  the 
crush  of  the  traffic,  that  he  was  well  into  the 
country  before  he  looked  down  at  the  bur 
den  on  his  arm.  He  felt  the  weight,  and  was 
amazed  that  he  could  see  no  one. 

"Amelia,"  he  whispered,  "Reveal  yourself 
to  me!  They  shall  never  recover  you  this 
time.  Here,  in  the  full  daylight,  I,  whom  the 
moonlight  betrayed,  have  seized  you.  Be 
fore  we  go  further,  give  me  the  silken  cord." 

"Wait,"  whispered  the  policeman,  "Give 
me  time  to  gain  my  breath!  You  have  seized 
me  as  the  whirlwind,  the  leaf.  I  am  breath 
less  and  dismayed.  Speak  to  me  again.  Tell 
me  your  plans." 

The  yew  hedge  man  galloped  on  until  they 
reached  the  confines  of  a  wood  of  which  Bi- 
ocletes  knew  every  hillock  and  dingle.  Had 
not  he,  as  a  moonbeam,  foraged  through 
every  blade  of  grass  and  played  the  mad 
game  of  life  and  death  with  the  shadows! 
What  was  the  plan  of  this  kidnapper?  If  it 
was  not  passion  that  led  him  to  abduct  Am 
elia,  what  was  it? 

As  they  rode  swiftly  on,  the  action  of  their 
going  seemed  to  awaken  something  in  his 
mind — something  one  of  his  brain  makers 
had  said.  He  had  heard  it  then;  he  under 
stood  it  now.  It  was  this : 

"He  need  not  be  deceitful.  Within  him,  he 
has  the  quality  of  defense.  Only  his  Source 
can  cut  off  that."  He  was  quoting  his  men 
tor:  "Men  like  those  fellows,  brave  as  they 


94  WHERE  THE  SUN  SHINES 

may  be  in  perpetrating  villainies,  are  afraid 
when  it  comes  to  dealing  with  the  Source." 

Biocletes  revealed  himself,  suddenly  and 
without  warning. 

The  man,  looking  down  at  his  burden,  the 
invisibility  of  which  had  been  making  him 
more  and  more  nervous,  was  terrorized  as  he 
beheld,  resting  in  his  arms,  with  ever  increas 
ing,  and,  what  was  becoming,  overpowering 
weight,  a  big  policeman  in  the  granite  gray 
uniform  of  the  king. 

With  a  howl  of  terror  he  dropped  his  bur 
den  in  the  road  and  fled. 

A  heavy  dust  in  the  highway  warned  Bio 
cletes  that  the  flight  of  their  leader  was  stir 
ring  up  the  speed  of  a  squad  of  confederates 
who  were  following  on  horseback. 

Biocletes  lay  quiet  in  the  dust  of  the  road 
until  the  squad  was  abreast  of  him.  Then, 
standing,  he  arrested  them  all  in  the  name  of 
the  king. 

Sullenly,  at  his  command,  they  dismounted 
and  faced  him. 

"Who  are  you?"  he  asked. 

"And  who  are  you?"  retorted  the  horde  in 
solently.  With  concerted  action,  they  ad 
vanced  against  him. 

Biocletes  stood  still. 

"He  has  within  him,  the  quality  of  defense. 
Those  fellows  are  afraid  when  it  comes  to 
dealing  with  The  Source." 

"I  wish  to  work  with  you  in  the  interests 
of  right,"  he  said  quietly. 


WHERE  THE  SUN  SHINES  95 

The  men  halted  in  their  advance. 

"Tell  me,  first  of  all,  why  your  leader  tries 
to  kidnap  the  princess,  whom,  it  is  plain,  he 
does  not  love?  Why  does  he  attribute  such 
value  to  a  silken  cord,  when  you  and  I  know 
that  silken  cords  are  easily  procured?" 

"That  girl  represents  the  last  of  a  race  of 
kings.  We  are  done  with  kings!  We  are 
going  to  take  her  away  and  kill  her !" 

"Oh,  that  is  it !  Then  why  not  do  it  at  once, 
not  weaken  your  chances  of  success  by  re 
maining  where  you  are  in  danger?  Why  is  it 
necessary  to  abduct  the  princess  in  order  to 
get  it?" 

"Don't  you  know  the  cord  is  the  tie  be 
tween  the  present  and  the  past?  We  can  do 
nothing  with  the  government  until  we  have 
the  cord.  We  can  not  get  the  cord  without 
the  girl.  We  want  it  to  tie  our  past  of  slavery 
and  servitude  to  her  luxury  and  ease." 

"Oh,  that  is  it !"  thoughtfully,  "Then  it  is 
a  valuable  cord,  indeed.  It  ties  cause  with 
result  and  result  with  cause.  It  can  not  be 
made  to  tie  anything  else  together.  Indeed,  it 
is  a  necessary  instrument.  But  what  matter 
in  whose  hands?  It  can  not  be  lost,  you 
know." 

"We  do  not  intend  it  shall  be!"  growled 
one.  "We  are  going  to  use  it  to  tie  about  the 
necks  of  kings." 

"What  about  yourselves?" 

"We  shall  be  free  forever,  after  we  have 
used  it  to  strangle  kings.  No  cord  can  ever 


96  WHERE  THE  SUN  SHINES 

tie  our  actions  to  the  results  we  are  going  to 
let  loose  upon  the  earth.  The  results  will  all 
pile  themselves  upon  the  kings  and  bury 
them." 

"What  do  you  expect  as  results  for  what 
you  are  doing — results  for  yourselves,  I 
mean?" 

"All  that  the  kings  have  had:  joy,  pleasure, 
food,  wine,  women — and  we  have  one  of  the 
finest  of  her  race,  now,  in  the  hands  of 
yonder  man." 

The  granite  uniform  of  the  policeman 
flashed  like  a  moonbeam  through  the  air. 
Aye;  but  the  soul  of  a  man  was  within  it. 
He  flashed  with  his  old  time  swiftness  across 
the  eyes  of  the  men  before  him.  They  began 
to  mouth  horribly  to  gibber  and  to  writhe. 

"We  are  moon  crazy,  moon  crazy,  com 
rades  !"  they  cried,  and  fell  upon  each  other 
with  the  ferocity  of  wild  beasts. 

Thus  he  left  them,  fighting  with  each 
other,  until,  they,  every  one,  died. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

Still  the  yew  hedge  man  was  at  large;  still 
the  princess,  fairest  woman  in  the  world,  in 
danger.  Still  there  was  the  mother  whose 
noble  face  he  had  looked  upon  that  night 
when  he  saved  the  daughter  from  a  dreadful 
fate.  There  was  still  the  kindly  father  who 
had  taken  the  daughter  in  his  tender  arms 
and  who  had  done  all  that  he  could  do,  bound, 
as  he  was,  in  the  chains  of  a  system,  to  uplift 
and  benefit  the  earth.  There  was  the  court, 
there  was  the  government,  which,  despite 
many  and  terrible  abuses,  had  made  much  of 
the  world  to  bloom  with  beauty  and  with 
prosperity  in  many  directions.  Certainly,  the 
good  in  these  should  be  preserved,  not  de 
stroyed,  while  the  less  good  passed  its  way 
and  better  took  its  place.  Yes,  valuable,  in 
deed,  was  that  silken  cord  that  held  together 
cause  and  result,  result  and  cause.  It  was 
the  causes,  the  rsults  that  must  be  sought 
and  changed.  The  silken  cord  could  never  be 
made  to  connect  other  than  its  own  result 
with  its  own  cause,  never  be  wrested  from 
the  holder  thereof,  The  Source. 

In  a  flash  he  realized  what  The  Source 
meant ;  what  the  words  of  one  of  the  teachers 
of  his  making  meant.  The  Source  and  what 
it  held  could  not  be  killed  or  maimed  or 
stolen. 


98  WHERE  THE  SUN  SHINES 

He  settled  his  helmet  firmly  on  his  head 
and  walked  to  town. 

"Every  result  is  a  new  cause,"  he  said, 
"and  every  cause,  a  result." 

On  his  way  to  the  city  he  passed  through 
a  section  seething  with  decrepitude   more 
physical,  here,  than  moral,  yet,  again,  not  so 
much  of  the  body,  he  could  see,  as  it  was  of 
thought  and  attitude  of  mind.   The  attitude 
of  mind  was  a  result,  he  quickly  decided,  but 
once,  in  the  far-back  days,  it  must  have  been 
the  attitude  of  mind  that  was  the  cause. 
These  people  he  saw  were  not  villains  and 
robbers,  blood  drinkers  and  crucifiers.  They 
were  kind,  they  meant  to  do  their  best;  but 
there  was  no  strength  in  them;  no  health;  no 
food  to  nourish  them;  no  teachers  to  direct 
them.    They  truckled  to  wealth,  like  serfs; 
they  worked  as  best  they  knew;  they  did  not 
fight  and  try  to  steal  the  silken  cord.    They 
made  a  fetich  of  their  rulers,  discriminating 
not  at  all  between  what  they  did  that  was 
good  and  what  was  not  good,  because  few  of 
them  could  discriminate  what  was  wise  and 
what  was  unwise.   Often  what  was  for  the 
best  of  all  was  decried  or  ignored.    Because 
of  their  ignorance,  they  could  not  separate 
what  they  should  be  pleased  to  have  done 
and  what  should  pass  away.  The  silken  cord! 
They  knew  nothing  of  it !  Should  not  such  be 
released  from  the  cord?  Ah!  but  they  could 
not!  The  cord  was  like  law — immutable.  It 
was  law! 


WHERE  THE  SUN  SHINES  99 

He  threw  some  gold  as  he  passed  through 
the  throngs.  As  these  saw  the  gold,  the 
throngs  grew  greater,  receiving  while  giving 
nothing.  He  had  their  thanks!  Nay,  even 
these  were  unintelligent  and  maudlin.  He 
could  feel  the  pull  of  the  cord  upon  them; 
the  pauperizing  from  ill-advised  giving  and 
brutal  witholding  of  that  which  would  give 
them  the  meat  of  training;  the  drink  of  reci 
procity;  the  fruit  of  rightly  directed  en 
deavor. 

When  he  reached  the  square  of  Grab-and- 
Get-Some,  he  found  it  seething  with  excite 
ment  caused  by  the  attempted  abduction  of 
the  princess.  The  guards  had  been  quad 
rupled  and  bayonets  bristled.  Cannon  were 
being  placed  at  the  entrance  to  the  avenue 
which  led  from  the  square  to  the  castle.  The 
king,  himself,  had  come  into  the  square  to 
direct  the  operations.  His  face  was  noble. 

"Here  is  the  man  who  saved  your  daugh 
ter,  sire,"  said  one  of  the  guards  as  Biocletes 
approached  that  part  of  the  square  where 
the  king  was  standing. 

"Come  here,  lad,"  said  the  king  cheerily, 
in  any  but  the  manner  of  the  old  time  kings. 

Biocletes  drew  nearer,  more  and  more  im 
pressed  with  the  true,  not  only  the  external, 
majesty  of  the  king.  Here  was  a  man  who 
wished  all  his  people  well,  who,  daily,  sought 
means  to  accomplish  their  welfare.  Would  it 
not  be  better  for  the  king  and  for  Amelia 
could  he  find  a  way  to  abduct  the  silken  cord 


100  WHERE  THE  SUN  SHINES 

that  held  such  a  king  to  the  dynasties  which, 
more  than  good,  represented  murder  and 
rapine?  Ah!  but  he  never  could!  The  cause 
and  effect  were:  rapine  induces  rapine.  It  had 
been  the  rapine  of  kings  and  barons  that  was 
paramount.  Now  it  was  becoming  the  rapine 
of  the  people.  The  only  way  that  he  could  see 
to  act  was  to  help  check  the  rapine  of  the 
present;  to  aid  in  turning  activities,  not  into 
generosity;  but  into  justice.  How  was  that 
to  be  done?  The  kings  seemed  no  longer  to 
have  the  power  to  breast  the  waves  to  their 
own  personal  safety.  The  only  remedy  he 
could  think  of  was  to  summon  all  who  knew 
of  their  Interior  Defense  from  whatever 
place  in  life  and  create  a  new  aristocracy — 
the  aristocracy  of  constructiveness  and 
worth. 

He  approached  the  king. 

"The  Princess  Amelia  is  the  apple  of  my 
eye."  The  king  shook  hands  in  friendly  demo 
cratic  fashion.  "We  must  stop  these  outra 
ges.  With  such  men  at  large,  we  are  all  in 
danger.  See,  I  am  making  the  city  bristle 
with  cannon.  The  slums  are  to  be  searched. 
When  found,  these  men  are  to  be  put  to  the 
cannon's  mouth  and  split  to  pieces." 

"Already  they  are  that,  sire."  The  bodies 
of  all  but  one  of  your  daughter's  abductors, 
are  disintegrated  to  dissolution  by  the  rend 
ing,  within  them,  of  their  evil  thoughts. 
These  are  the  most  telling  cannon  the  world 
has.  All  but  one  went  mad  on  the  highway. 


WHERE  THE  SUN  SHINES  101 

They  fell  on  one  another  with  fearful  mouth- 
ings  and  disputes  and  recriminations.  When 
I  left  them,  already,  they  were  fighting  to  the 
death.  May  I  tell  you,  sire,  that  cannon  are 
the  least  of  all  weapons  of  defense  and  of 
deliverance.  Necessary,  they  may  be,  now,  as 
objective  lessons  to  the  moon  men  and  the 
earth  men,  of  what  power  means;  but  they 
are  really  nothing.  They  but  disintegrate  the 
shell.  The  mind  goes  on.  The  silken  cord 
these  men  are  trying  to  find  still  holds  in 
tact  the  causes  with  the  effects  those  causes 
have  set  up.  May  I  say,  sire,  there  must  be 
new  causes?" 

"That  must  mean  the  disintegration  of  all 
present  systems."  The  king  was  very 
thoughtful.  "I  have  heard  that  all  talked 
over  and  called  out  in  the  market  places 
where  I  have  gone  disguised,  to  listen.  Are 
you  one  of  these  disrupters  of  social  sys 
tems?" 

"I  am  a  policeman."  Biocletes  smiled  a 
quiet  amused  little  smile. 

"A  strange  policeman,  truly,"  laughed  the 
king.  "Come,  sit  with  me  in  my  carriage  and 
talk  with  me  while  these  preparations  are 
going  on.  Tell  me  all  you  can  to  throw  light 
on  these  terrible  complications  of  life.  Tell 
me  what  you  see,  as  policeman  ,and  what  you 
see  as  within  yourself." 

"King,  these  men  who  have  tried  to  gain 
possession  of  the  silken  cord  through  the 
person  of  your  daughter  and  her  will,  are 


102  WHERE  THE  SUN  SHINES 

moon  men.  They  see  things  upside  down.  I 
have  been  one.  I  know  whereof  I  speak.  Can 
non  will  splinter  only  bodies.  The  upside 
down  of  the  mind  still  goes  on.  That  mind 
they  will  continue  to  project  into  the  minds 
of  others,  to  the  same  untoward  end.  They 
are  tied  by  the  silken  cord." 

The  king  looked  at  him  penetratingly. 

"What  do  you  know  of  the  silken  cord?" 

"I  know!"  said  Biocletes  simply.  "These 
men  think  upside  down.  Others  in  the  world 
think  not  at  all.  They,  too,  will  be  splintered 
by  the  cannon  and  the  shrapnel;  but  the 
silken  cord  will  still  hold  them  to  you — the 
effect  to  the  cause." 

"Do  you  mean  I  am  the  cause  of  all  this 
horror  I  see  about  me?" 

"You  are  one  of  the  effects  of  the  cause, 
so,  one  of  the  causes  of  the  present  effects." 

"What  can  I  do?" 

"As  an  individual,  little  other  than  to  bear 
constantly  in  mind  and  action,  that  your 
defense  is  within  you.  They  who  see  upside 
down  will  soon  absorb,  and,  in  their  mad 
ness,  destroy  those  who  see  not  at  all,  and 
increase,  by  so  much,  their  force.  Still,  they 
will  be  tied  to  you  and  you  to  them,  by  the 
same  silken  cord — the  cord  of  cause  and  ef 
fect." 

"May  not  we,  too,  think  upside  down? 
Why  should  we  be  at  one  end  of  the  cord 
and  they  at  the  other?" 


WHERE  THE  SUN  SHINES  103 

"You  are  linked  to  what  you  and  yours 
have  done.  You  are  linked  to  what  these 
others  have  done  and  are  going  to  do." 

"What  can  I  do?"  repeated  the  king. 

"At  present,  leave  these  cannon  here  as  an 
objective  expression  of  a  force  that,  from 
time  immemorial  has  made  causes.  Then  send 
a  far  call  from  The  Source.  They  who  recog 
nize  the  banner  as  their  own  will  come  from 
the  mountains  and  the  valleys,  the  castles 
and  the  slums  of  the  earth.  They  will  show 
themselves  apart  from  the  moon  men  and  the 
earth  men.  They  are  the  sun  men  who  shall 
make  a  new  heaven  cause  for  a  new  earth. 
These  shall  stand  behind  the  cannon  and 
their  speech  shall  be  greater  than  the  thun- 
derings  of  gunpowder.  It  shall  give  impetus 
to  its  charge  and  direction  to  its  blow.  The 
power  of  their  forces  shall  rest,  not  in  rapine 
nor  in  killing,  nor  in  communism  nor  in  jeal 
ousy  nor  in  lust;  but  in  holding  together 
what  you  and  yours  have  brought  the  earth 
in  beauty  and  prosperity  and  increasing  its 
value  through  the  willing  work  of  their 
hands." 

"We  shall  die!" 

"As  earth  men,  yes.  What  matters  that  if 
we  are  to  be  sun  men !  I  was  a  moon  man.  I 
saw  things  upside  down.  Now  I  am  an  earth 
man.  I  see  things  as  they  are.  I  am  on  the 
way  to  being  a  sun  man  who  sees  things  as 
they  are  to  be,  working  justly  and  according 
to  law,  to  a  royal  consummation.  I  will  stand 


104  WHERE  THE  SUN  SHINES 

with  you.   I  will  answer  your  call  from  The 

Source." 

"How  shall  I  send  the  far  cry?" 

"The  Source  will  send  it.  Give  orders  that 

all  shall  listen.  The  Source  will  speak  to  all. 

They,  who,  like  Samuel,  are  listening,  they 

shall  surely  hear." 


CHAPTER  XV 

The  preparations  for  killing  with  cannon 
went  on.  Watchmen  were  set  in  the  towers; 
but  Biocletes  went  back  to  his  position  in 
the  market  square.  There,  day  after  day  he 
watched,  attentive  to — oh,  so  much  no  one 
else  saw,  because,  having  been  a  moon  man, 
he  knew  how  the  moon  men  saw,  and  being, 
now,  an  earth  man,  could  translate  what 
they  saw  into  what  really  is.  Being  still  in 
the  hands  of  the  citizens  of  wits,  nourished 
by  the  chemicalizing  of  the  lungs,  strength 
ened  and  warmed  by  the  advices  of  the  heart, 
always  within  the  call  of  The  Source,  he  was, 
in  very  truth,  becoming  a  sun  man,  son  of 
the  Real  Father  who  knew  him  and  whom  he 
was  beginning  to  know. 

He  knew  what  he  was  set  to  find  in  the 
square  of  Grab-and-Get-Some.  Day  after 
day,  month  after  month  he  stood  there,  ful 
filling  the  usual  duties  of  assisting  the  young, 
the  old,  the  heavy-laden  through  the  busy 
thoroughfare,  quelling  disturbances,  keeping 
the  peace  to  outward  apperances,  bringing 
order  out  of  the  turmoil  about  him.  With 
mind  never  asleep,  always  alert,  he  listened 
to  the  call  of  The  Source,  till  men  on  the 
force  said  he  was  a  wizard  who  could  tell 
what  was  going  to  happen  before  it  came  to 


106  WHERE  THE  SUN  SHINES 

pass  and  thus  turn  many  a  possible  disaster 
into  a  public  benefit. 

The  citizens  of  wits  and  the  republic  of 
the  heart,  added  teacher  after  teacher  to  the 
corps  that  long  had  been  training  Biocletes. 
One  day,  a  new  voice  spoke  to  him. 

This  voice  taught  him  lessons  different 
from  even  the  finest  and  best  of  the  other 
teachers.  Had  he  not  been  listening  very 
intently,  he  would  not  have  heard  the  voice. 
Had  he  not  been  listening  intelligently,  he 
would  have  thought  some  of  the  teachings  to 
be  nonsense.  Now  he  almost  always  listened. 
The  lessons  never  came  in  specific  directions 
to  be  blindly  obeyed,  and  never  in  commands. 
There  was  always  some  delicate  or  forceful 
suggestion,  as  the  case  might  be,  presented 
to  his  intelligence  for  him  to  reject  or  to 
accept.  Always,  it  was  left  for  him  to  work 
out  the  details. 

This  day,  the  lesson  came  from  this  won 
derful  soul  teacher  like  a  sweet  song,  beauti 
ful  in  the  simplicity  of  its  utterance: 

"Eye  hath  not  seen;  ear  hath  not  heard; 
neither  hath  it  entered  into  the  heart  of  man, 
the  things  prepared  for  them  that  love 
HIM." 


CHAPTER  XVI 

It  was  just  before  the  electric  lights  were 
flashed  on  in  the  square,  that  the  granite 
gray  policeman  quickly  left  his  post.  Since 
his  prompt  action  had  saved  the  Princess 
Amelia,  he  had  been  allowed  to  follow  his 
own  dictates.  He  had  been  facing  the  setting 
sun.  It  had  seemed  to  hang  for  a  moment 
over  the  battlements  of  the  castle  before  it 
disappeared.  He  had  been  watching  it,  no 
longer  with  fear  but  with  love,  and  a  deter 
mination  that  never  again  would  he  run  from 
anything.  Every  night  he  faced  the  sun  be 
cause  once  he  had  turned  from  it  in  fear. 

Tonight,  it  seemed  to  give  him  benison. 
In  his  soul,  he  heard  the  far  call  of  the  king 
as  he  sent  forth  his  cry  to  those  who  knew 
the  Source  of  their  defense,  to  make  ready  to 
respond  to  the  summons  of  that  Source,  and, 
as  sun  men,  to  rally  together,  letting  the 
moon  and  earth  men  shred  themselves  and 
each  other  to  pieces  if  they  would. 

The  sun  had  sent  long,  long  rays  far  into 
the  world  before  it  dropped.  One  ray,  like  a 
finger,  seemed  longer  and  more  insistent 
than  the  rest.  Then  a  sudden  gloom  fell  on 
the  square  for  the  lights  were  late  in  being 
flashed  on.  Biocletes  suddenly  left  the  spot 
where  he  stood,  turned,  after  all,  and  ran 


108  WHERE  THE  SUN  SHINES 

away  from  the  sun,  into  the  shadows  that 
were  falling,  into  dense  shrubbery,  that  the 
long  last  finger  of  the  sun,  had  seemed,  the 
most  insistently,  to  pierce. 

Into  the  copse  he  flew  with  his  old  moon 
beam  speed,  to  the  spot  where  a  cannon  stood 
concealed. 

With  clearly  directed  action,  he  tore  away 
something  that  was  strapped  across  its 
mouth  with  a  silken  cord. 

Glancing  along  the  barrel,  he  saw  a  man 
in  the  act  of  lighting  the  fuse.  It  was  the 
yew  hedge  man.  Biocletes  looked  into  his 
eyes. 

In  a  moment,  the  man  mouthed  and  gib 
bered. 

"I  am  moon  mad !"  he  leered,  and  began  to 
tear  his  body  with  horrid  clawings,  as  he 
howled  and  cried. 

Biocletes  looked  down  upon  the  burden  in 
his  arms,  the  silken  cord  that  was  attached 
to  it,  trailing  on  to  the  body  of  the  writhing 
man. 

He  looked  into  the  face  of  the  Princess 
Amelia. 

"I  have  seen  you  before,"  she  said  looking 
up  at  him  with  perfect  trust. 

"Where?"  said  Biocletes. 

"In  my  heart,"  said  Amelia  happily. 

"Why  do  you  follow  the  yew  hedge  man?" 

"He  makes  me." 

"How?" 

"He  keeps  telling  me  I  owe  it  to  the  suf- 


WHERE  THE  SUN  SHINES  109 

fering  and  the  poor  to  sacrifice  myself  to 
their  interests  until  I  think  the  suggestion 
is  from  my  own  mind." 

"How  did  he  explain  that  sacrificing  your 
self  unto  a  useless  death  would  help  them  in 
their  poverty  and  suffering?  That  may  not 
be  unless  you  give  your  life  to  translating  to 
them  the  difference  between  The  Great  Prin 
ciple  and  whim,  liberty  and  license." 

"He  said  my  death  would  give  into  their 
hands,  the  silken  cord." 

"O  Lady,  where  were  You — Your  Self?" 

"Asleep." 

"Why  did  you  not  listen  to  your  Source. 
You  know  you  have  one." 

"I  could  not  hear  its  voice.  The  auricles  of 
my  mind  were  clogged  with  the  dictates  and 
opinions  of  others  until  all  I  did  with  my 
mind  was  to  let  it  be  put  to  sleep  by  others 
while  with  the  body  I  followed  blindly,  men 
acing  and  jargonned  vituperations.  I  could 
not  see  that  useless  dying  does  not  compen 
sate  for  useless  living." 

Biocletes  drew  forth  a  little  leathern  bag 
that  was  suspended  about  his  neck,  so  close 
to  his  heart  that  the  pulsations  of  that  sturdy 
friend  acquainted  him,  always,  of  its  safety. 

He  took  from  it — Amelia  watching,  won 
dering,  the  while — the  princess'  diamond. 

"I  return  this  to  you.  It  is  yours,"  he  said, 
gravely  and  tenderly. 

She  fingered  the  royal  jewel  carelessly  but 
with  surprise. 


110  WHERE  THE  SUN  SHINES 

"It  is  the  diamond  I  lost  while  playing  with 
my  kitten.  You  found  it.  You  should  have 
it.  Take  it." 

"I  thank  you  for  the  graciousness  of  the 
thought  but  I  may  not.  That  stone  is  your 
responsibility.  Gladly,  for  your  sake,  would 
I  relieve  you  of  its  burden;  but  each  must 
wear  his  own,  even  as,  about  each  one,  must 
his  own  silken  cord  be  tied.  Your  respon 
sibility  is  in  the  form  of  a  brilliant  diamond. 
Mine  is  in  the  granite  gray  uniform  of  a 
policeman." 

"And  I  played  ball  with  my  kitten  with  it !" 
Amelia  was  appalled. 

They  moved  away;  but  the  silken  cord  had 
fastened  its  other  end  into  the  shredded  body 
of  the  man  still  gibbering  out  his  life,  though 
the  body  was  splintered  beyond  recall  or 
recognition.  As  the  princess  moved,  the  body 
was  dragged  along  by  her. 

"Tear  off  this  cord,"  she  screamed.  "Al 
ways,  it  has  brought  me  horror  upon  hor 
ror." 

She  showed  signs  of  fainting.  Biocletes 
placed  the  diamond  before  her  eyes. 

Just  then,  the  electric  lights  were  flashed 
on.  The  light  was  refracted  from  the  jewel's 
many  facets.  It  sparkled  into  her  eyes. 

The  light  revived  her.  She  shook  herself 
and  stood  upon  her  feet. 

"A  greater,  even,  than  the  sun,  shall  re 
veal  your  path  to  you,"  whispered  Biocletes. 
"For   each   greater   occasion,   he   sends   a 


WHERE  THE  SUN  SHINES  111 

greater  leader.  The  moon,  the  earth,  elec 
tricity,  the  sun  have  been  my  mentors.  Now, 
I  read  in  them  all,  messages  from  The 
Source." 

"Take  away  from  me  the  body  of  this 
death!"  Unconsciously,  she  paraphrased  a 
geat  teacher,  as,  loathingly,  she  turned  from 
the  quivering  body  that  writhed  as  a  serpent 
writhes  till  the  sundown  of  the  day  it  is 
slain. 

"I  can  not.  It  is  tied  to  you  with  the  cord 
that  binds  cause  with  effect." 

"I  am  no  cause !  I  have  done  none  of  these 
things  which  have  brought  these  present  ef 
fects!  I  have  but  followed  the  directions  of 
my  heritage  and  when  I  was  told  these  direc 
tions  were  wrong,  blindly  I  followed  the 
mentor  who  told  me  so!  I  did  not  order  these 
cannon  here!" 

"You  are  an  effect  of  that  cause." 

"I  will  be  good,"  she  said  pitifully,  like  a 
frightened  child. 

"You  are  good!"  He  bent  with  exquisite 
love  and  kissed  her,  embracing  her  beautiful 
body,  reading  the  heart  of  her  soul  through 
her  lovely  eyes. 

"Will  not  goodness  release  me?"  She  was 
assured  by  his  caress  and,  though  still  afraid, 
nestled  closely  to  him. 

"No,"  he  said  sadly,  "No!" 

"What  will?" 

"The  Source  will  tell  you,  not  I !" 

As  she  moved,  once  more  she  felt  the  pull 


112  WHERE  THE  SUN  SHINES 

of  the  dreadful  thing,  as  she  had  not  felt  it 
for  the  moment. 

"I  can  not  walk  with  this  horror  trailing 
behind  me,"  she  screamed. 

Again  Biocletes  held  the  diamond  before 
her.  It  had  grown  larger.  It  flashed  its  bril 
liance  into  her  eyes  with  the  refracted  light 
from  many  more  facets. 

"If  it  is  larger,  it  is  also  finer."  Biocletes 
whispered. 

Again  Amelia  stood  erect. 

"Shall  we  ride  home?"  said  the  policeman 
to  the  princess. 

'  Let  us  walk,"  said  Amelia.  So,  together, 
they  walked  to  the  entrance  of  the  castle. 


CHAPTER  XVII 

The  castle  guards  fled  crying  before  Bio- 
cletes  and  his  companion  as  they  beheld  the 
dreadful  thing  that  dragged  along  behind 
their  beautiful  princess.  The  king,  hearing 
the  commotion,  ran  to  the  outer  door.  Ap 
palled,  he  looked  uncomprehendingly. 

'What  does  this  mean?"  he  said  hoarsely. 

"Father,  it  is  the  result !  The  result !" 

The  king  turned  to  Biocletes. 

"I  have  brought  you,  sire,"  said  the  police 
man,  "the  daughter  whom  you  love,  from  the 
mouth  of  the  cannon  you  ordered  to  be  placed 
for  her  protection.  She  was  bound  to  it  by 
this  silken  cord.  As  I  tore  her  from  the 
mouth  the  other  end  of  the  cord  fell  on  to 
the  body  of  this  man  who  was  lighting  the 
fuse.  It  will  not  be  separate  from  him." 

"The  cord  of  cause  and  effect,"  groaned 
the  king.  "What  are  we  to  do?" 

The  mangled  body  of  the  fallen  man  had 
been  lying  still,  so  still  that  all  knew  him  to 
be  dead.  It  stirred  and  writhed  again. 

"What  do !"  it  called,  "Get  out  of  the  moon 
and  earth  notion  that  I  am  dead.  I  live!  I 
gibber!  I  still  hold  on  to  the  end  of  the 
cord." 

"Transfer  yourself  to  me,"  said  the  king. 
"The  princess  has  done  no  harm!  She  has 


114  WHERE  THE  SUN  SHINES 

ever  been  kind,  and  obedient  to  those  in  au 
thority.  If  she  played  with  a  diamond  worth 
a  kingdom,  she  did  it  unwittingly.  Tie  your 
self  to  me!" 

"The  cord  of  cause  and  effect  makes  no 
skips,"  gibbered  the  moon  mind,  "I  am  learn 
ing  things  now  that  my  body  is  shredded  and 
is  what  you  call,  dead,  so  that  I  no  longer 
depend  on  it,  but  on  what  has  kept  it  going 
all  this  time.  You  can  not  transfer  her  res 
ponsibility  nor  take  one  jot  nor  tittle  from 
her.  She  is  the  last  expression,  the  gatherings 
together  of  what  hers  and  yours  have  done." 

The  mutilated  corpse  of  the  moon  man 
laughed  and  writhed  again. 

"And  YOU  are  the  result  of  what  you  and 
yours  have  done!"  said  Biocletes  sternly,  as 
the  king  groaned  and  looked  down  at  the 
bestial  face  of  that,  to  which,  he,  through 
his  daughter,  was  linked. 

"Get  you  gone."  Biocletes  spoke  as  one 
having  authority.  "You,  too,  are  the  cause  of 
an  effect — the  effect  of  centuries  of  irrespon 
sibility,  jealousy,  hatred,  spleen  and  greed!" 

"There  shall  be  no  more  kings,"  roared  the 
moon  mind.  "They  are  despots!  They  shall 
die!  and  all  their  brood.  The  beauty  they 
have  built  up  shall  rot  on  the  landscape!  If 
one  knows  more  than  another,  he  shall  be 
crucified!  If  one  works  more  than  another, 
he  shall  be  flayed!  If  one  eats  and  drinks 
more  than  another,  he  shall  die!" 

"What  are  you  talking  about!  You  have 


WHERE  THE  SUN  SHINES  115 

seen  that  one  does  not  die!  One  only  sheds 
one's  coat.  You  are  still  tied  to  the  princess 
and  to  hers  as  much  as  ever  she  is  tied  to  you ! 
You  are  as  much  responsible  for  her  and 
their  autocracy  as  they  are  responsible  for 
you  and  your  degradation.  They  have  never 
degraded  you!  You  have  degraded  your 
selves  !  In  the  beginning,  had  not  some  of 
your  forebears  weakened,  you  would  be  rul 
ing  as  these  hated  kings  have  done.  If  your 
face  does  not  belie  you,  you  would  be  ruling 
with  rapine  and  murder,  instead  of,  as  this 
king  has  done,  with  justice  and  mercy  and 
wisdom." 

"Yes  we  are  tied  together !  I  want  to  get 
rid  of  that  woman  as  much  as  she  wants  to 
get  rid  of  me.  I  want  to  get  away  where  I 
can  spread  my  ideas  among  the  millions  you 
can  not  see." 

"The  cord  will  not  be  broken  nor  the  bur 
den  at  the  other  end  released!  It  will  be 
unseen!  That  will  be  the  more  horrible!" 
Amelia  shivered  and  ceased  speaking.  The 
king  groaned. 

"Give  it  to  me!"  he  said  again  and  again. 
But  no  one  answered  him. 

"I  will  take  my  responsibility,"  said  Am 
elia  suddenly,  "Come,  brother,  stand  up  by 
me !  Be  my  equal !  You  are  my  equal !  Stand ! 
We  will  share  equally,  our  crust  of  bread." 

The  corpse  shrieked  with  glee. 

"Now  indeed,  you  are  becoming  a  moon 
mad  man  and  are  seeing  things  upside  down. 


116  WHERE  THE  SUN  SHINES 

I  can  see  that,  myself,  now.  Are  we  equal? 
Does  saying  so,  make  it  so?  I,  with  blood 
and  venom  in  me,  you,  with  purity  and 
sweetness!  Don't  be  a  fool!" 

"The  Source!  The  Source!  cried  Biocletes. 
"Princess  Amelia,  your  defense  is  within 
you !  O  king,  summon  the  sun  men  who  know 
their  Source."  *  * 

The  three  stood  still  in  the  soft  light  of 
the  garden,  into  which,  long  ago,  Biocletes 
had  been  led  by  the  water  sprite.  The  noble 
mother  stood  beside  the  husband,  now,  and 
many  of  the  courtiers  and  the  serving  men. 
Others,  like  vipers,  slunk  into  the  dark  fast 
nesses  of  the  forest  beyond,  or,  like  basilisks, 
circled  tne  garden  and  tried  by  breath  and 
look  to  blast  the  coming  day.  The  noisome 
thing  that  had  writhed  at  the  feet  of  the 
princess,  lay  still. 

"The  Source!"  cried  the  king.  "Come,  ye 
sun  men  who  know  your  Source !" 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

They  came ! 

Above  the  smoke  of  the  cannon,  from  out 
the  hearts  of  the  poppies  of  Flanders,  from 
the  plains  of  Verdun,  the  forests  of  Thierry, 
from  out  the  palaces  of  Petrograd,  the  mines 
of  Siberia,  from  out  the  slums  of  London, 
Paris  and  New  York  as  well  as  from  the  tem 
ples  of  all  creeds  and  beliefs ;  from  the  homes 
of  the  wealthy  and  the  honored  and  the 
hovels  of  the  poor  and  unstudied  alike,  mar 
shalled  the  hosts  of  the  sun  men. 

From  the  beginning,  they  came.  Side  by 
side  they  stood  by  the  millions  upon  millions, 
the  children  of  the  Sun,  who  knew  their 
Source. 

Then  from  out  the  hearts  of  the  poppies 
of  Flanders,  from  the  plains  of  Verdun,  the 
forests  of  Thierry,  from  out  the  palaces  of 
Petrograd,  the  mines  of  Siberia,  from  out 
the  slums  of  London,  Paris  and  New  York, 
as  well  as  from  out  the  temples  of  all  creeds 
and  beliefs;  from  the  homes  of  the  wealthy 
and  the  honored  and  the  hovels  of  the  poor 
and  unstudied,  marshalled  other  hosts. 

From  the  beginning  they  came.  Side  by 
side  they  stood  by  the  millions — the  moon 
mad  men  who  saw  things  upside  down,  the 


118  WHERE  THE  SUN  SHINES 

crazed  earth  men,  who,  frenzied  with  condi 
tions,  strove  with  blood  for  blood  and  rapine 
for  rapine  to  straighten  out  things  as  they 
are. 


CHAPTER  XIX 

All  the  devices  of  man's  brain,  spent  their 
wrath.  Cannon  boomed;  gasses  filled  the 
spaces  that  belong  to  the  life  sustaining  air. 
Millions  were  felled.  But  nothing  injured  the 
cord  of  cause  and  effect. 

Behind  the  bellowing  of  crazed  men,  the 
shrieking  of  shrapnel,  the  crashing  of  battle, 
there  were  the  lust  of  conquest ;  the  greed  for 
possession;  the  revenge  of  jealous  souls. 

Yes,  but  also  back  of,  and  within  the  bel 
lowing  of  shrapnel  and  of  cannon  was  the 
glad  cry  of  those  who  knew  their  Source. 
Not  one  of  these  turned  from  the  responsi 
bility  that  cause  had  placed  upon  them.  Not 
cne  quavered.  As  body  after  body  fell,  each 
rose  again. 

"A  man  all  light,  a  seraph  man 
On  every  corse  there  stood." 
With  new  strong  bodies,  the  tired  outer 
shell  cast  off;  with  forces  stronger;  think 
ing  and  seeing  powers  clearer,  they  stood. 
The  light  of  The  Source  in  their  faces  was 
brighter  than  the  noonday.  It  dazzled  the 
moon  mad  men,  frightened  them.  Even  in 
their  madness  they  knew  that  it  is  the  Sun 
that  gives  light  to  the  moon  and  life  unto  the 
earth.  Here  and  there,  by  ones  and  in 
groups,  moon  men  and  earth  men  turned,  as 
Biocletes  had  done,  and  faced  the  Sun,  that, 
rising,  shone  and  seemed  to  stand  still. 


CHAPTER  XX 

When  there  had  come  a  lull  in  the  con- 
f  ict  Biocletes  looked  about  him  for  Amelia. 
She  stood  beside  him.  The  diamond,  with 
which  she  had  played  ball  with  the  kitten, 
shone  larger  and  brighter  than  ever  before 
with  millions  of  facets,  each  refracting  light. 

He  looked  behind  her.  The  loathsome  shell 
that  had  been  her  responsibility,  had  disap 
peared;  but  fine  spun  shafts  of  light,  with 
her,  as  a  centre,  radiated  from  her.  The  ends 
could  not  be  seen,  but  visioned  along  their 
way,  results  born  of  righteous  causes. 

The  sun  men,  who  knew  their  Source, 
stood  together,  in  soul,  upon  the  mountain 
tops  though  they  were  seen  in  all  the  marts 
of  trade  and  in  the  governmental  halls.  Fol 
lowing  the  perfect  cause,  The  Source,  they 
commanded  all  the  valleys  of  the  moon  and 
of  the  earth,  seeing  life  come  forth  from  the 
poppies  of  Flanders,  from  the  forests  of 
Thierry,  from  the  slums  and  the  palaces  of 
the  earth. 

Uncertainly  moving,  like  fading  moon 
beams;  squirming  like  worms,  lay  or  moved 
or  fought  or  raged  the  moon  men  and  the 
men  of  earth. 

Phalanxed  together,  responsibility  shining 
like  a  glory  on  their  brows,  with  beauty,  util- 


WHERE  THE  SUN  SHINES  121 

ity  and  joyous  response  to  the  power  within, 
stood  Biocletes,  the  Princess  Amelia,  and  all 
who  had  gathered  from  the  farthermost 
parts  of  the  world,  at  the  summons  of  the 
Source,  clothed  upon  with  the  Sun. 

Even  as  these  stood  there,  the  contending, 
the  raging,  the  squirming,  as  of  earth 
worms;  the  inconsequential  wanderings,  as 
of  moonbeams,  felt  the  effects  of  the  Great 
Light,  and  turned  their  backs,  and  slunk  or 
ran  away. 

Thus,  clothed  upon  with  Light,  Amelia  and 
Biocletes  faced  the  Sun  and  his  cohorts. 

"Follow  me,  my  children  of  Light,"  he 
called  to  them,  "I  have  led  you,  daily,  more 
closely  to  yourselves.  For,  the  Kingdom  is 
within  you." 

THE  END 


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